Editorial
Welcome you all to the fourth year of publication of NERD! As the
co-founders of NERD, we thank you for your valuable comments
and suggestions throughout the past three years; and sincerely
hope that you all continue to play your role in making NERD reach
new heights.
Many activities that started under the umbrella of NERD in the past
three years are now evolving, all aimed at motivating students for
at least dirtying their hands once in science and technology, before
they get enchanted to itch for lucrative careers light years away
from science, as science journalist Angela Saini, in her book ‘Geek
Nation’, points out –“The only reason students come to IITs is to get
better salary package than their fathers.”
SCoPE, the lecture series where we invited eminent professional science communicators of the likes of Mr.
Arvind Gupta (famous science toymaker), Mr. K P Madhu (Producer, Turning Point) and Mr. Pallava Bagla
(Science Editor, NDTV and Senior Correspondent, Science Magazine) witnessed active participation from
the campus and taught us important lessons in communicating science to our readers. Competitions like
science poetry, science fiction writing and scientoon making explored new avenues of conveying science to
peers. Workshops on science communication and journalism were designed and conducted at other IITs
and IISERs to emphasize upon the significance of good communication in science - be it popular or professional. Last but not the least, the discussion group of young science and technology enthusiasts lured many
untainted minds to share their excitement in reading and discussing about what they wanted to.
Recently, there have been too many activities in the campus to motivate you all to look towards science,
and that left us in a fix to choose which articles to include in the issue that’s in your hands. The lecture series on ancient Indian science and civilization by eminent historian Michel Danino, that had jam-packed
L16 with the enthralled audience and the discussion that followed regarding a ‘History of Science’ course
being offered in our curriculum, was undoubtedly the best choice for the cover story; along with an exclusive detailed interview with him. Two undergraduate students recently won the ‘Best new entry’ award of
the AHS (American Helicopter Society) Design Competition – how can we dare not include it! To increase
your awareness about Indian science itself, we have a piece on National Engineers’ Day. Not to mention,
there were many other high esteem stories too, but we secure them for our next issues!
This issue also marks the start of two new regular genres to the magazine – one related to STS (Science,
Technology and Society) and philosophy of science and the other from projects that students make in the
clubs of Science & Technology Council. We hope you enjoy these new arrivals.
Interview with faculty members has been the most regular feature of NERD. We talk to Prof. K. Muralidhar,
the former Dean, R & D; under whose guidance and support NERD started in 2008. We express our gratitude to him not only for trusting a completely student-led initiative, but also guiding us in the right direction at all times, thus helping NERD grow better. We also have an interview with Dr. Suchitra Mathur, the
Gopal Das Bhandari Memorial Awardee 2010 for Outstanding Teacher; as a teacher, a researcher and an
active member of IITK community.
Move on with the issue and fill our mailboxes with your feedback! We’d be grateful. ‘Create, Communicate,
Contribute!’ remains our mantra.
Cheers!
Editors, NERD

1

IITs and the future Indian
research scenario
Interview with Prof. K. Muralidhar
Mohit Kumar Jolly
Prof. K. Muralidhar served as the Dean, Research and Development, IIT Kanpur from January 2008 to
January 2011. An eminent researcher in experimental fluid mechanics and a Fellow of Indian Academy
of Engineering, he has been a faculty member in Mechanical Engineering Department since 1987. He has
also served as Head of the Department and Chairman, GATE among others. Here are excerpts of the
interview NERD team had with him on role of IITs in the future Indian research scene:
NERD: You have been in this institute for more
than two decades now. What, in your opinion, is
the most distinguishing feature of this institute?
Prof. Muralidhar: We have a heterogeneous mix
of students, staff and faculty, and hence a mix of
ideas, viewpoints, outlook and working style.
These reflect in the way we offer courses, the
academic programs, research topics we work on,
and our publications. To a great extent, we find
that faculty members work in areas they are
excited and passionate about. They may work on
their own or collaborate with colleagues within
the institute and across the world. Faculty would
like to be seen as leaders in certain areas, but the
defining point is that they are really excited and
interested in their field of work. Indeed, they
work hard in their chosen disciplines for long
years, perhaps decades. Accordingly, you would
see that an enormous amount of expertise is
available within the institute in certain areas,
which in turn is well-recognized internationally
because of this depth of knowledge and contributions to the literature.

available within the campus to work on these
subjects, I encouraged them as much as possible. I
pushed them to write large proposals and insisted
that they work collectively.
NERD: IITs were established to provide technical
manpower and strengthen the base of science and
technology in the country. In the past 50 years, do
you think we have realized this vision?
Prof. Muralidhar: The contribution of IITs
cannot be assessed purely by numbers. Moreover,
I am not sure if IITs have been set up purely in the
national context. The goal has been to train
engineers to be the best they can be. To that
extent, our students have excelled both as specialists as well as entrepreneurs. In numerical terms,
we would not have trained as many people as we
would have liked, but I believe that we have
succeeded in terms of quality to produce the best
engineers who have done very well both within
and outside the country. Of course, by engineers, I
include those who have specialised in basic
sciences as well. Nationally, the contribution of
our students has been limited, but globally it has
been very good and our training program has
been uniformly hailed in various quarters.

NERD: You just completed your term as Dean,
Research and Development. What was your vision
when you joined in 2008 and how far, do you
think, did you achieve it?
Prof. Muralidhar: The role of a Dean is clearly
defined within the institute - it is to assist the
Director in chosen realms. When I took over, the
Director told me that he would like to support
new initiatives and fulfil the dreams of the faculty.
I assumed my role was to provide the link
between the potential that exists with the faculty
and their performance. Having said that, I felt that
there were emerging areas in technology vital to
the Institute and the country, such as solar
energy. When I found that there were groups

NERD: Coming to the role of IITs in the future of
Indian research scenario; what, in your opinion,
are the major reasons that are holding the Indian
research scenario to bloom currently?
Prof. Muralidhar: This is a fairly difficult question to answer. In a nutshell, it is the complexity
of the subject domain itself. Consider the fact that
the demand for superior technology in our daily
life has become quite acute; say an audio system
or a computer has to be of really high quality
today. Engine emissions must be truly benign.
Microscopes need to be super-specialty and oscilloscopes, of the greatest speed. Apart from using
2

these gadgets, engineers are the ones to develop
these tools as well. We need to work for novel
materials, new processes and innovative ideas. In
addition to intellectual sophistication, it calls for a
huge investment in research and development both in academia and in industry. These acute
quality benchmarks are a defining requirement of
the current times that was
not present earlier.

ing. I have seen students work tremendously hard
over a period of time. One also has to keep in
mind the fact that Indian graduate students are
not really articulate, they may not show-off their
excitement as American students do – that’s our
personality. They quietly look around, observe
things and at some point, a glow fills their eyes;
that is their passion for the
I have seen that
“Indian graduate students subject.
glow very often among
I must also point out that
are not really articulate, they students at all levels- underthe expertise in technology
graduates, masters and
development has become may not show-off their excite- certainly at the doctoral
very distributive. People
ment as American students level. I have seen doctoral
have to work together; no
students become very pasone person can do it all. do – that’s our personality.” sionate about their subject.
Individualistic
approach
Some choose to work in a
will not lead us further anymore in achieving
given area throughout their lives, but they have
quality or performance. This is a new revelation.
not been eloquent about it. I would say, look for
For instance, medical technology needs surgeons,
the spark in the eyes of students rather than any
mechanical engineers, electrical engineers, comexclamation or outburst of sound from them.
puter scientists and biomedical and biotechnology scientists to collaborate and work together to
Also, there is a slight diffidence among students
produce a superior product, for example a surgisince they may not see their work being relevant
cal robot.
or getting implemented in everyday life. Suppose
a student is working on laser imaging of fluid
In short, quality specifications have shot up and
flow, where would he/she find his/her work in
the nature of the demand is multi-disciplinary.
action? This plants doubt in one’s minds, you see
Only those researchers who function with this
them confused but ultimately, over a period of
mindset are likely to succeed in the future.
time, students gain confidence.
NERD: An article in the journal ‘Science, TechnolNERD: Based on personal communication with a
ogy and Society’ and one in Current Science state
faculty member, he told me that the only reason
that the issues that are stagnating the growth of
he would like to conduct research so that he can
the Indian research are more related to the motiget promoted to the next level, where he would
vation and dynamics of students and faculty inget a house that his wife likes. Do you think that
volved than the infrastructure issues. How far do
this lack of accountability on the part of faculty
you agree with this?
members is holding our
Prof. Muralidhar: I see
output, because
the
issue
differently. “Quality
specifications have research
everything is so permaMobility in research, of
shot up and the nature of the nent in the government
course, requires positive
setup at IITs?
attitude as a pre-requisite demand is multi-disciplinary. Prof. Muralidhar: Within
of
success.
Jointly,
Only those researchers who IIT Kanpur, a very large
research requires strategy
number of faculty memin the sense that a right function with this mindset are bers are self-motivated.
balance needs to be mainlikely to succeed in the future.” Three decades ago, pubtained between depth and
lishing a paper was not
breadth. The defining criteria would be the speed
considered as important as going to the class and
with which improved products are delivered to
giving your best effort and energy to the students.
the customer, goals of the society are fulfilled,
Compared to grooming students, publication was
while meeting constraints of cost, time, and
given less importance. Over a period of time, it is
demand. On the other hand, a certain dependable
now clearly stated that everybody has to publish,
minimum infrastructure that improves with time
so I would say that a large majority of faculty
is also needed to facilitate research. The absence
members are publishing in good journals. Even
of strategy is a weakness in our system.
those who never published earlier are now
getting into it. Undoubtedly, the
performance is certainly going up.

Speaking of students, my experience is the follow3

research

Even though we are under the government mindtheir own. Something similar happens with some
set that everything is permanent, still there is
faculty too. They try to work in cutting edge areas
something called as peer pressure, and this is
even if they lack necessary preparation for it.
what is driving most of our colleagues. We should
They have a mindset for aiming for a breakalso keep in mind that in every organisation,
through because that’s what gives them the most
around 10% of the individuals would be nonrecognition. Some may think that slogging out for
performing for various reasons, so we should give
thirty years on a topic is not really exciting, but
that allowance. Quite a few faculty members at IIT
very routine. So, this expectation of breakKanpur work on technology demonstrators, dethrough without adequate preparation, underveloping infrastructure for the institute, or for the
standing and effort leads to considerable embarwelfare of students as wardens, so their time is
rassment. Running faster than your natural speed
put to use very producis probably the reason for
“Scientific misconduct happens these very unfortunate
tively.
incidents.
If you want my opinion because people try to run faster
on a major weakness
NERD: One of the most
than their natural speed.”
among faculty members
common scientific misconof IIT Kanpur, I would say that our inter-personal
duct has been the communication of science. On
relationships are not as healthy and professional
one hand, it’s told that we should be very innovaas they should be. There are conflicts, both major
tive in communication, and on the other hand,
and minor and when such conflicts exceed a cerright from class sixth, if you write the definition of
tain level, they can get personalised. Other weakfriction even one word that is different from the
ness that I feel among faculty members here are
book, students shall not be given marks. Right
that we are not effective in managing our time.
from the school education, we have been trained
to copy and paste things. Don’t you think this is a
Speaking of output, we have to start viewing ourcontradiction?
selves as a corporate entity rather than a univerProf. Muralidhar: Again, this is a very difficult
sity if we hope to convert the financial investment
question for me to answer. I find that this school
into productivity. The structure we function in is
mentality of forcing the students to write exactly
more like a corporate body, but we need to adapt
as per the text book is because we are in the
our mindset too in that direction. There are weaksystem of mass education. The class sizes are very
nesses, but, with greater clarity of our roles and
large. The teacher has to grade the answer sheets
expectations, I am sure that the faculty performin a short period of time, so the person looks for
ance will really explode in the future, because a
extremely conventional answers that are visible
high degree of motivation and competence is
in either one book or a collection of books. Any
available.
new idea can simply not be valued because the
teacher does not have time. Probably students
NERD: Coming to research ethics, recently many
should be counselled to reveal their creativity
cases of scientific misconduct came up in different
outside
the
IITs and also
“A
major
weakness
among
faculty
members
classroom
abroad
by
than
many Indians
of IIT Kanpur is that their inter-personal rather
within
the
specifically.
relationships are not as healthy and
classroom, for
What, do you
example, NERD
think, is special
professional as they should be.”
is a very good
with this Indian
paradigm where students having strengths in
attitude that is calling this scientific misconduct?
certain domains can flourish. Similarly we have a
Prof. Muralidhar: Misconduct has been noticed
student group called PoWER (Promotion of Work
at several stages. Let’s start with the research
Experience and Research) where students take on
projects that students do. We tend to give exchallenges from the industry and try solving
tremely ambitious projects to students - projects
them.
that are way beyond their normal level of competence. Later, we expect superlative presentations
I suggest that students should look for avenues
within a couple of weeks while the student has
outside the classroom for innovation. Of course, I
not been nourished properly on that topic. Under
should point out that research is about creativity,
these conditions, quite a few students adopt the
because every publication has to be unique. A
short-cut of downloading material, including
student, as an individual, can grow a lot while
presentations, from the internet and present it as
being involved in research.
4

NERD: As it’s said, “Just as the twig is bent, so is
the tree inclined”, so what is your suggestion to
promote undergraduate research at IITs and
other institutes to have a better future scenario?
Prof. Muralidhar: Research has become more of
a necessity. New diseases are getting revealed
every other day; it means that we come up with
medicines faster than the rate at which diseases
are being discovered. It is true with product quality. Your simple mobile has been evolving on a
monthly basis - we want more and more features
in the mobile, all within the same space and cost.
All that would demand a heavy amount of research. Designing was considered a prime activity
for engineers. This has changed and I feel that
engineers and scientists have to lead the life of a
researcher as an everyday activity. They have to
conduct research a lot more aggressively than in
the past. It follows that original thinking and research should be promoted from the first day of
undergraduate studies. Thinking out of the box,
doing new things, thinking of ways and means of
problem solving - all these would soon be normal.
Research has become an essential part of the engineering profession, therefore, it has to be
brought early on in the curriculum of undergraduate students.

and students need to generate a lot of time to do
research. In our institute, that would mean less
meetings, less committee work and paperwork at
every level, so that a faculty member can spend at
least 6-7 hours per day on research and students,
probably 8-10 hours. Faculty, students and the
staff will have to just focus on doing creative
work. This will highly impact the quality and
quantity of research that is done and it would be
justice done to the heavy investment of the government into our institutes. So, time, I would say
is the essence.
NERD: Coming towards the end of the interview,
so how would you describe Prof. K. Muralidhar in
one line?
Prof. Muralidhar: Motivated and interested in
life.
NERD: And what is the final message for the students?
Prof. Muralidhar: Believe that each person can
make a huge difference.
NERD: Thank you Prof. Muralidhar for the interview and the insights you have given!
This interview is the transcript of an audio interview
with Prof. Muralidhar, taken for IIT K 90.4 FM. It was
transcribed by Pankaj Prateek.

NERD: We have been hearing that private as well
as government funding for IITs and research has
been raised. In the increasing arena of infrastructure support, what other limitations do you see as
a hurdle for the future Indian research scenario?
Prof. Muralidhar: The answer is very simple.
Research is time consuming, so faculty members

Mohit Kumar Jolly (mkjolly@iitk.ac.in) is an M Tech
student in the Department of Biological Sciences and
Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur. He is interested in science
communication and co-founded NERD, the campus
science and technology magazine, in 2008.

Workshop on effective scientific communication for PhD students
Can scientists just sit in isolation, talking to their microscopes? No. Communication is central to science—
be it in reading and writing papers, giving and listening to talks, or discussing with students or collaborators. You can not NOT communicate, being a scientist!
A workshop on scientific communication was organized for 25 doctoral students across all departments
during the mid-semester recess, from March 21-25, 2011 by Dr. Geoff Hyde, the scientific communication
coordinator at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) Bangalore.
The workshop aimed to improving students’ skills in both forms of scientific communication - writing
scientific manuscripts, and giving research seminars. The workshop started with an introductory talk by
Dr. Hyde where he introduced the concept of treating the presentation of scientific research as a story,
using the example of movie Lagaan and a hypothetical study on tree frogs. The participants had to explain
their research in a five minutes to their colleagues coming from different departments. This was followed
by detailed exercises for 5 days on the philosophy of storytelling as an effective method of scientific
communication. The participants both enjoyed and learnt during the workshop very much and were
sensitized to the fact that effective communication leads to clarity of thought in their minds about their
own work too. For more details and opportunities to participate in future such workshops, contact Mohit
Kumar Jolly (mkjolly@iitk.ac.in).
5

Soaring High
IITK students win
American Helicopter Student
Design Competition
Puneet Singh and G. Sriram
Two dual degree students in Aerospace Engineering, Puneet Singh and G. Sriram, recently won the best
new entry in the American Helicopter Society Student Design Competition 2011, with their reconfigurable compound helicopter ‘RC2’. Let’s have a look at their design that has won applaud for the institute:
The Contest
Insertion:
The American Helicopter Society (AHS) InternaThe vehicle was required to carry six persons
tional is a professional technical society for the
plus equipment totaling a minimum payload of
advancement of vertical flight. A major driving
4000 pounds (1815 kg), for a minimum one way
force behind the rotorcraft industry since the
distance of 250 nautical miles (463 km). This was
1940s, it has been conducting a Student Design
a test on the payload capacity of the vehicle.
Competition since 1984 – an extremely challengResupply: 3000 pounds of payload was to be deing competition with fierce competition among
livered till 250 nautical miles (463 km) and exuniversities considered to be
changed for a similar payload for the
hubs of helicopter and vertical
return journey.
flight research. Past competitions
have involved designing sport
The motive behind such a vehicle is
helicopters, one man rotary racthat in addition to the multiple areas of
ers, tilt rotors, heavy lift helicopuse, it reduces inventory and mainteters, UAVs, firefighting vehicles,
nance costs due to commonality of
Mars rotorcrafts, urban disaster
parts. The vehicle had to have a crew
helicopter, high altitude rescue
of four, and had to be able to perform
vehicle, non conventional drive
‘out of ground effect’ hover at 6000ft
system, control surface designs
(1.83 km), at a ground temperature of
Fig 1: RC2 helicopter
and many more. The competition
95 Fahrenheit (35 degree Celsius). The
is based on a RFP (Request for Proposal), develRFP called for the vehicle to be reconfigurable
oped by the sponsoring company, which details
(within one hour) for the different missions. Also
requirements for a challenging vertical flight
certification noise requirements and a representechnology.
tative engine technology were specified. Fourteen
teams participated in this contest with six of them
The 2011 competition, sponsored by Bell Helicopdropping out later.
ter Textron, had the problem statement of designing a multi mission vertical lift system that optimally blends the competing requirements of
three very different missions:

The Configuration
The IIT Kanpur team, consisting of two undergraduate students of Aerospace Engineering Department, proposed a vertical lift system named
‘Re-Configurable Rotor Craft (RC2)’ (Fig.1) for
this RFP and captured the prize in the ‘New Entrant Category’.

Search and Rescue:
The vehicle had to have a payload of six passengers or carry two litters (medical stretchers) with
two medical personnel plus equipment for a radius of 225 nautical miles (nearly 415 km) Also,
there is a concept of a ‘Golden Hour’. In rescue
operations, critically injured patients have the
highest chance of surviving if they are provided
with medical treatment within an hour of being
injured. This puts an extreme constraint on the
speed of the helicopter, requiring up to 225 knots
(nautical miles per hour).

We started the design by considering various existing vehicles and configurations which came
closest to meeting the requirements, and found
only a few of them technically possible with the
capability of hovering. Let us give a brief outline
about different rotorcrafts.
Apart from the conventional helicopter (with one
6

main rotor and a tail rotor), there are coaxial rotors, tilt rotors, tandem rotors and jet rotors. Coaxial rotors do not have a tail rotor which consumes power, but they have a large rotor hub creating significant drag during forward flight. Tilt
rotors (like those side by side vehicles seen in the
movie â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Avatarâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;) are fast and have a high operating
ceiling, but their payload capacity is small and
they have complex moving and rotating wings,
rotors, and a propulsion system. Tandem rotors
(like seen on the Chinook) have a heavy lift capability but are slow sluggish machines. Jet rotors
use a high speed jet of air ejected from the tips of
the helicopter rotor to rotate them. There are no
commercially produced jet rotor helicopters because of a lack of a good control system and complexity of propulsion.
Compound Helicopters
Helicopters that have a wing and/or an auxiliary
thrust system are known as compound helicopters. There have been many prototypes of these
helicopters made till date, but none have ever
reached the production stage. These have been
able to reach very high speeds with the record
being held by the Sikorsky X2 of 250 knots (463
km/h). There are two reasons behind this ability.
First, at high speeds, much of the lifting force is
taken over by the wing, and the rotor is unloaded.
Secondly, in conventional helicopters, the rotor
has to tilt forward so that there is a horizontal
component of the rotor thrust which pulls the
helicopter forward. (Fig 3) Tilting causes a decrease in the upward component for balancing
the weight of the vehicle. This has to be compensated for by the pilot increasing the blade angles.
Having an augmented thrust removes the need of
tilting the rotor forward, and can provide much
higher forward thrust for the helicopter.

Fig 2: (From top to bottom) Conventional rotor,
Coaxial rotor, Tandem rotor and Tilt rotor.
Restrictions on high speed:
Conventional helicopters are restricted from high
speeds because of two effects. The first is the advancing blade compressibility effect. Assume that
the blades are rotating in a counterclockwise direction when viewed from above, and the helicopter is moving forward. On the right side, the
blades are moving forward (advancing side) in
the direction of the helicopterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s velocity, and on
the other they are moving in the backward direction (retreating side). The relative velocity on the
advancing blade is much higher than the free
stream velocity and the flow approaches the
speed of sound there. The formation of shock
waves can completely damage the flow, and cause
unacceptable loads on the blade.

Design Challenges and Trade offs

Fig 3

The second restriction on high speed is due to
7

retreating blade stall. On the retreating side of the
rotor, the relative velocities are much slower.
This causes the angle of attack on the retreating
blade to increase, since it is inversely proportional to the horizontal velocity. Airfoils can produce lift only for a small range of angles, and
above them the flow separates and the airfoil
stalls. So if the advance ratio, which is the forward
velocity divided by the tip speed of the rotor, is
high (in the range of 0.4 - 0.5), portions of the
retreating side of the rotor stall and the thrust
required to keep the helicopter in the air is lost.
Due to these reasons no conventional helicopter
has been able to break the speed record set by the
Westland Lynx, which used a specially designed
blade tip to reach 216.4 knots (400 km/h). However the compound helicopters have been able to
go much beyond this limit due to the help of the
wing and augmented thrust as explained above.

the rotor blades from our hover ceiling condition
and the available power from the engines, and
showed that a 21.325 ft (6.5m) radius rotor was
ideal for our mission. We kept the aspect ratio of
the blades at 10.825 for aerodynamic efficiency as
well as restricting the modes of vibration.
The blade airfoil was kept different over the root,
middle and tip of the blades for optimizing the
speed and hover capability; and the tip as reconfigurable for the three different missions. Finally,
to delay the compressibility effects, we varied the
tip speed, airfoil and shape.
Wing Design
The major challenges in the wing design were the
selection of wing plan form (shape and layout),
geometry, airfoil and location of the wing on the
helicopter. We extensively studied previous helicopters for the merits and demerits of using a
variable incidence wing, flaps and spoilers. Selecting wing area and aspect ratio was a trade off between hover capability of the helicopter and the
induced drag of the wing, whereas the location of
the wing was decided by giving consideration to
rotor wing interference, ground clearance and
longitudinal stability characteristics. We did not
use the variable incidence wing considering
structural complexity of the design and inability
to build in components such as undercarriage and
fuel storage into the wing, although it provides
the ability to optimize the wing lift ratio and re-

Rotor Design:
The first major element of the rotor system is its
tip speed. The compressibility effect during forward flight, the noise levels and the retreating
blade stall set the tip speed at 644 ft/s (196m/s).
The number of blades impacts the vibration,
noise, drag and power. We incorporated five
blades in order to reduce the intense noise and
vibration at high forward speeds. But a larger
number of blades also have a disadvantage of
higher weight and cost. We obtained the radius of

Fig. 4
8

Fig. 5
duce hover download. A trade off which allows
the wing lift to be controlled to a greater degree
while not impairing the structural simplicity is
the use of flaps and this was incorporated into the
wing design.

mechanism to avoid power redundancy and reduce the weight penalty of the transmission. This
engine can be controlled to provide both shaft
power and thrust, or two different shaft power
outputs where the power can be continuously
varied.

Auxiliary Propulsion System:
We considered various propulsion systems - such
as turbojet engines, turbofan engines, propeller
and ducted fan arrangements- to find an efficient
one that optimizes cost, weight and noise. The
propeller complied with most of the mission requirements and provided a lighter, less noisy and
a reliable source of auxiliary thrust for a sustained flight.

Final Design
The design was of a conventional helicopter with
a five blade main rotor, and a tail rotor. The helicopter was reconfigurable with a wing and an
augmented propeller thrust system, for the high
speed mission of search and rescue. The maximum take off weight was of 12484 lbs (5660 kg).
Speeds of 192 knots were feasible. For the insertion and resupply, the wing and augmented thrust
was removed for more space and fuel capacity.
The best range speed in these missions was 120
knots, and the vehicle weighed at takeoff 13600
lbs (6170kg) , and 12900 lbs (5851 kg) respectively.

The propeller was not only easy to install and
remove during reconfiguration, but also provided
greater fuel efficiency as compared to turbofan
and turbojet engines, which is critical in missions
involving high power requirements. Also, it had
reduced mechanical complexity and separation
losses as compared to the fan-in-fin ducted fan
concept.

We designed the rotor to have reduced vibrations
and noise apart from being able to operate at high
altitudes and hover. The wing was designed such
that it does not interfere with the rotor wake. The
controls also were configured such that the helicopter remains stable and in equilibrium in its
flight path, with and without a wing. The helicopter was powered by two GE T700 turbo shaft engines which allowed the helicopter to operate

Transmission:
A hard nut to crack in designing a compound helicopter is effective power transmission to both the
rotor and the auxiliary propulsion and varying
the power transmission ratio between them. We
chose the variable-cycle engine transmission
9

safely and with enough power for all missions.
The high speed mission especially required
higher power to both the augmented thrust and
the rotor. Studies showed that the available
power was sufficient enough even for emergencies or an engine failure. Interior reconfiguration
(Fig. 6) allowed standard air ambulance equipment arrangements and fast easy changeover due
to modular design. Cargo was stored according to
the International Air Transport Association container specifications.

Finally, the cost analysis showed that the cost of
the helicopter including development and manufacturing costs to be around $6 million. The operational differences between the missions could
be appreciated by the variation in the direct operating costs for different missions, $320/hr for the
Search and Rescue mission, $160/hr for the Insertion mission and $120/hr for the Resupply
mission.

Sriram G. (sriramg@iitk.ac.in) is a final year dual degree
undergraduate student in the Department of Aerospace
Engineering at IIT Kanpur. His research interests
include Structural design and analysis, Design
of Aerospace
vehicles, Micro-mechanics and
multi-scale modeling of materials

Notes from the authors
The design challenge was an exercise that gave us
an idea of the real world challenges in building a
vehicle. It taught the nuances of the design
process, giving consideration to manufacturing,
costs and flying quality apart from the enormous
technical challenges in keeping tonnes of payload
hovering in the air. The complete proposal can be
viewed
at
http://www.vtol.org/awards/
sdcomp.html. The work would not have been
possible without the splendid teaching of Dr. C.

Puneet Singh (punsingh@iitk.ac.in) is a fourth year dual
degree undergraduate student in the Department
of Aerospace Engineering at IIT Kanpur. His
research interests include helicopters, micro air
vehicles, stability and control
Together, they spend their time plotting to make India a
self reliant aerospace superpower.

National Engineer’s Day: Why, When, in whose memory?
What is common between Dr. Abdul Kalam, Dr. C
V Raman and Sir M Visvesvaraya? These are the
only three Indian scientists or engineers
who have been awarded the highest
civilian award of the nation- Bharat
Ratna, and September 15, the birthday of
Sir M. Visvesvaraya, is celebrated as
National Engineers’ Day.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on
September 15, 1860 at Muddenahaali, a village at
the foothills of Nandi hills near Bangalore. He was the architect of the Krishnarajasagara (KRS) dam across Cauvery
river – one of the biggest dams in India
which irrigates a hundred and twenty
thousand acres of land. He also set up
Mysore Iron & Steel works in 1918 – the
plant that used to export pig-iron to USA
in those pre-independence days of India.
The famous tank duo of SecunderabadHyderabad cities that he designed saved
Hyderabad from the devastating floods of Musi
river, and ensured good water supply to the city.
The concept of rotation of supply of water to prevent its misuse and maximize benefits for agriculture, introduced by him, completely revamped
the Deccan canal system.

So what ‘public service of the highest
order’ did Sir Visvesvaraya render? A
great visionary who believed in industrialization as the panacea for the country’s
poverty, he was passionate about optimal usage of water resources and was the most
eminent engineer India has ever seen. He contributed to the greatest common good in terms of
irrigation, industries, infrastructure, waterworks,
dams and roads. He was not only an engineer par
excellence – but also a social transformer.
10

Rightly called as the ‘Father of modern Mysore
state’ (now Karnataka), he transformed the
departments of industrial and economic development. He established Mysore University and
introduced compulsory education in the State of
Mysore, which later got enshrined as a fundamental right in the Constitution of independent India.
State Bank of Mysore (then the Bank of Mysore), a
reputed financial institution, was also his brainchild. The only aircraft factory in India today–
National Aeronautics Laboratory in Bangalore –
came through his consistent efforts. He set up
Mysore soap factory, Mysore oil factory, and later
served as the Diwan of Mysore from 1912 to
1919.

He was the Knight Commander of the order of
Indian Empire (KCIE) in 1915, and was honored
with the membership of Institution of Civil Engineers (based in London) for a period of 50 years.
He was conferred Bharat Ratna in 1955.
Several institutions, including Visvesaraya
National Institute of Technology (VNIT) Nagpur,
have been named in his honor. A beautiful memorial of Sir MV (as he was sometimes called) is
located on the family-owned land at Muddenahalli. An IIT is also proposed to come up at
Muddenahalli by 2012, to pay a tribute to his
birthplace.
Let’s pay respect to this personification of ‘Simple
living and high thinking’ today, and express our
gratitude for his unparalleled contribution to the
society as citizens of the country.

His life was disciplined and replete with significant contributions to the public good. He passed
away on April 14, 1962, at the age of 101 years.

Hitchhiking on the edge of thought
Part One: Sneaky Assumptions
V Gopi Krishna
Author’s Note on the Series
A look at The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Samuel Kuhn provides us the stages of
scientific investigations, and shows us that although science has been successful in making predictions
within the theories, the prediction of the next new theory has been more difficult, and scale of the new
theories have consistently come as a surprise. No one anticipated the revolution in thought brought by
Newton, or Copernicus, Einstein or Dirac. If science is a prediction of the unknown from the known, what
can Science predict about Science itself?
This series is dedicated to crossing the barriers that thoughts enforce on us. This
series will ask, and try to answer, the questions: Why didn’t we think of it
before? How can one anticipate and create the next revolution? With an
understanding of perspectives, and how they change across time, this is an
attempt to make our perceptions flexible enough to grasp the nature of this
horizon, without sacrificing reality or logic. To that end, this would be a noholds-barred investigation of various viewpoints about science, including some
obscure ones. Let the integration begin.
Editor’s Note: The Structure of Scientific Revolution
Widely regarded as one of the most influential works since the Second World
War, The Structure of Scientific Revolution is an examination of how science
evolves with time. Written by Thomas Samuel Kuhn, an American historian and
philosopher of science, the book was first published in 1962. The book introduced ideas that have since been used beyond history and philosophy of science. Kuhn put his point
across by using examples from the history of science; his approach reminiscent of the case study method
in social sciences. The book sparked several debates which are still going on in academic circles encompassing scientific enterprise and fields beyond that. It inspired several other works, often with elements
critical of the ideas propounded by Kuhn. To state the obvious, the Wikipedia page about this book is an
excellent introduction to the central body of ideas propounded by Kuhn.
11

Today we have an appreciable scientific body of
thought built up, with questions addressed right
from the microscopic to the macroscopic world.
There is a massive industry which is running its
course every day, with thousands of papers published in various disciplines, and huge amounts of
money being poured into certain fields for the
purpose of research. The scientific method is
the prevailing agreed upon method of approaching the truth of the world. How does one know if
the scientific method provides us with the true
perception of reality? Well, technically, we do not
know that, but it is possible to subject that idea to
the self-same test of scientific validity. What will
be attempted hereon will be to highlight the approach by means of encountering certain facts, in
a more or less haphazard order, and then work
towards the conclusions.

ous discrepancies. The blackbody radiation problem led to the concept of the quantum, and
thereby to quantum mechanics and the discrepancies in Mercury’s movement paved the way to
relativity.
We will not concern ourselves with whether or
not the above theories are correct, and to what
extent, because the point to be noted is with regard to the mathematics. The mathematical assumptions were changed, at quite a profound
level, introducing Lorentzian metrics and for the
first time ever, complex numbers to describe the
physics of real quantities (as a preliminary look at
the Schrödinger equation reveals). This means
that no one who had not made the connection
with this sort of mathematics, in the years preceding this, could ever PROVE that the existing set
of laws are inadequate, and not just in a minor
way but to quite a large extent (in retrospect).
One has to restrict oneself to the existing set of
mathematical assumptions in order to even set
out to prove something to the scientist of the day.
Also note that from the point of view of that particular time, the scientist would be attempting
what would be seen as a wholesale revision of
existing concepts merely to account for some
small discrepancies. I shall come back to this
point in a later article.

With that in mind, let us make ONE single assumption right away, regarding the approach
which one is using — that the World or Universe
of our experience can be understood via a rational approach, and it is possible to obtain a true
perception of the world being led by facts, to the
limits of accuracy to which we are able to perceive them. Although assumptions by definition
do not require previous reasoning, I think we can
postulate this general statement simply because
rationality is the essential feature of the scientific
method which we will here set out to examine,
and to the best of our knowledge, experience is a
good indicator of reality. Note that the core of the
statement is the principle of rationality, coupled
to experiential facts. Also note that setting out to
examine itself embodies the same principle, so
we are consistent.

What can we take away from this idea? We can
take away the fact that proof is valid only for the
mathematical aspect of a theory, and NOT for the
coupling of experience with the mathematics.
Since mathematics does not require the adherence to reality or experience, but science does, it
follows that one cannot disprove a scientific theory on mathematical grounds, unless, of course
there is a mistake in the mathematics itself. At
that point the laws of mathematical necessity are
enough to demolish the theory. A contradiction is
all it takes. What this means is that no one can
prove, for example, that Newton’s theory is wrong
mathematically.

A second concept which is largely called upon to
verify the truth of phenomena is proof. This is
largely the requirement for mathematical treatment, where a certain relation among magnitudes, with the assumptions of mathematics being
used, brings out a certain other relation among
magnitudes as an inherent necessity. Let us allow
certain facts to throw some light on this requirement of truth.

This means that in order to examine the scientific
validity of science, we are to direct our sights
elsewhere, out of the domain of proof. That is
quite a big step, so let me reiterate, it is NOT necessary beforehand that one is able to PROVE that
a particular theory or view of the world is wrong,
in order to bring forward changes into the worldview. And the more massive a paradigm shift, the
tougher it is to prove the previous worldview as
being inadequate. Absence of disproof is NOT a
test of scientific validity.

Rewind the clock a hundred years back, towards
the latter decades of the 1800’s. It was wellknown then that the only minor problem with
physics for example, was with respect to a blowing up of the UV spectrum predicted for a blackbody, as well as certain small (note that keyword) corrections being required to account for
the movement of Mercury around the sun. A look
at theories of later time shows that two offshoots
have been derived from those apparently innocu-

So how then are we to judge the validity of our
12

scientific examination of science? It has to be
from experience, and the coupling of mathematical ideas to experience must reveal whether or
not we are on the right track. It is here that we
approach another turning point: how much of the
mathematical treatment must adhere to experience? What is the connection between the two?

ever ‘flowing’ backward, and about that, all the
scientists naturally agree. Not just that, quite
apart from the absence of evidence, it offers a way
to understand that there are various ways to couple mathematics to reality. Hence, the coupling of
mathematics with experience here is vital to reexamine, as it offers the ONLY corrective factor
any theory has. Mathematics says time can be
counted backwards. That stands to experience.
The reversal of time, or processes, or any of our
experiences, is not subject to the same law.

Let me illustrate this with an example. It is commonly known, that in Newtonian dynamics, physics does not change under time reversal. What
does this mean? This is actually a mathematical
statement which means that if we flip the sign on
the term having time from +t to –t, the dynamics
is essentially unchanging, or as it is generally
called, invariant. This represents that instead of
going from initial to final conditions, one can easily think of going from the final to the initial conditions, with essentially the same physics coming
into play. Hence dynamics is closely connected
here with our perception of time. In a general representation, going from –t to +t represents time
moving forwards or events presented in a forward manner, and going from +t to–t represents
time moving backwards or events rewound as if a
video were reversed.

As you have seen, a simple argument such as the
above has far-reaching consequences. What
about causality then? What about the second law
of thermodynamics? How about time reversal
symmetries in recent theories? And so on. We’ll
examine the process of these questions in the
next article, but here we note that this happens
because it deals with the basis of the sciences,
which is the area from where the revolutions in
thought generally come about. It is indeed encouraging that there is an avenue open for each
one of us to explore independently, where we
connect the mathematics to the outer world.
To summarize, the criteria we apply on science is
that it must explain things rationally, quantitatively for the time being. In view of that quantitative aspect, it is seen that in shift of viewpoints, it
is generally the relation between mathematics
and reality that is remolded, and hence disproof
of an existing theory is not a good criteria. At this
point we necessarily reach the question: How do
we overcome the limits of human perception? We
cannot obviously perceive electricity in the same
way as we do light, and we are pretty far from
experiencing any nuclear force, which nevertheless offers considerable explanation to physical
phenomena. We must be able to decide scientifically, the amount of leeway we offer to mathematics when it comes to our perceptions and intuitions, and hence put them on hold when we make
our calculations.

Pause. There is another explanation. When we
look at time, as represented by t, is just a count. It
is a number that counts a periodic occurrence.
Since this count is linear, we are at perfect liberty
to be notoriously pessimistic and choose to count
BACKWARDS. Let us assume that instead of time
starting from (for example) 1 AD and going to
2010 AD, it instead starts at what we mark as
2010 AD counting DOWN to 1 AD. In that sense,
the future would go towards negative numbers! It
is entirely up to us whether we count it by adding
an increment, or subtracting an increment, as
long as we do it periodically. But what happens in
the case of (tfinal – tinitial) in the case that the
counting is backwards? It turns out to be negative. The number line mathematically offers us
this freedom, and it is the same freedom that is
reflected in the change of sign. The only conclusion that can be drawn in that case is that in classical mechanics, time enters as a linear quantity.

We shall consider that in the coming article(s) in
this series .
This article is the first part of the series of 7 articles the
author, Gopi Krishna, has written for NERD; on topics
related to philosophy of science and science and society.
Reach out for next issues of NERD to read the following
articles of the series.

However, note the connection generally made in
physics, with -t and time flowing from future to
the past. Here, a physical perception (or mental
qualitative perception, if you will, both being valid
in our examination) of time is allowed to go totally reverse, and is then taken as reality and applied to concepts such as causality, its violation, et
cetera. There is absolutely NO evidence of time

V Gopi Krishna (vgopik@gmail.com) graduated from IIT
Kanpur in 2009 and is currently pursuing his doctoral
studies at the University of Houston.

13

Civil Engineering Education and
Construction Practices:
How to Bridge the Gap Between the Two
Kaustubh Dasgupta
Editor’s Note
This article was awarded the first prize in the national-level essay competition on “Civil Engineering
Education and Construction Practices: How to Bridge the Gap Between the Two” organized by the Indian
Chapter of American Concrete Institute, Mumbai, during December 2004. Seven years later, this article is
still relevant. It has been reproduced without any editorial changes. Instead, updates to the article have
been provided at the end and have been referred to from within the text of the article. The views
expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should
not be attributed to, the NERD Magazine and its team.
Introduction
Civil Engineering (CE) is the oldest engineering
discipline. The earlier days of engineering consisted of military engineering and civilian engineering services only. Since then, challenging projects in the development of infrastructural facilities of the country have been the testimonies to
the glory of the profession. In a project, the execution stage poses the biggest challenge; the preceding planning and design stages revolve around
the adopted construction method. The true romance of the Civil Engineering comes out in the
construction stage.

construction industry poses the biggest challenge
to the human resource development sector. The
engineering education system needs to play a
dual role, namely (a) building the pool of construction professionals, and (b) developing a continuing education system for the professionals.
The build-up of human resource pool will be
wasteful if the imparted training is out-of-sync
with the construction practices.
Civil Engineering Education: Current Scenario
Among the educational institutions offering CE
courses, there are very few universities offering
undergraduate (UG) programs in construction
engineering. These institutes offer theoretical
courses covering the whole gamut of construction
methods and practices. But the practical aspects
are overlooked in many cases.

Thus the basic CE education should prepare the
budding engineers in tackling the challenges in
construction. Many a times the construction practices do not comply with what is taught in CE
courses. This needs a detailed investigation.

Postgraduate (PG) programs on construction
management and project management are offered
in some institutes, e.g., National Institute of Construction Management and Research, Jaipuria
Institute of Management etc. But the number of
such institutes is ridiculously small as compared
to the huge requirement of trained manpower.
Also, these institutes impart specialized managerial skills to the students, not the nitty-gritties of
the prevalent construction practices.

Challenges Before Construction Industry
In India, the construction industry is the second
largest industry after agriculture. Its impact on
the national economy is such that, investment in
this sector contributes 6.5% of the growth of
Gross Domestic Product [1]. With the undertaking
of several mega-projects in various infrastructural sectors, a severe demand on the human and
material resources has been created. New materials, improvised equipment and technologies have
entered the construction practices. But the industry is facing a dearth of qualified technical manpower. The alarm bells have been already
sounded in the 14th Engineering Congress on
Human Capital Development in January 2002 that
“in time to come, India will not have sufficient quality civil engineers even to undertake basic infrastructure work”.

Most of the CE faculty members in the engineering colleges have no or very little work experience in construction industry. So they are not able
to highlight the relevant site problems during the
classroom teaching. For example, unless the difficulties faced in the construction of a dam are discussed in a course on dams, the overall picture is
not complete. Surely the tricks-of-trade can be
learnt only with experience. But the students
should be aware of the concerned issues and the

Creating this pool of specialized people for the
14

challenges faced at site.

Coupled with the absence of accountability of the
concerned people, improper construction practices are followed at the site to make illegal profits. Once a newcomer in the construction industry
enters this vicious circle, his focus shifts towards
making money. The quality of construction suffers at site.

During the UG program, the vocational training
period of two months (if not less) is hardly utilized by the students. Sometimes the students lack
motivation to visit the working site; they seem to
be happier indulging in “lucrative” career building
options. Sometimes the site supervisor of the student is himself so demotivated and frustrated
with his job that he discourages the willing-tolearn-but not-so-eager student in his endeavors
of learning construction practices. Thus in many
cases, the vocational training doesn’t help in
shaping up the student’s career.

With the above-mentioned scenario in the construction sector, the wide rift between the actual
work profile at site and the education system becomes obvious. First of all, the four-year CE curriculum grooms the student in a theoretical mode
with little emphasis on vocational training. Secondly, the codal provisions and construction
guidelines get violated due to various factors.
Thirdly, the four-year UG program in CE gives
very limited scope to students to think about the
subjects they study. As the students do not develop the habit of thinking, sometimes they tend
to blindly follow the wrong construction practices. Applying a bit of engineering sense might
bring out the flaw in an adopted method. But that
does not happen!!! Thus, the knowledge gained in
the four-year course remains back in the classnotes and the construction practice shapes up in
its own way.

So, in a few words, the current CE UG curriculum
does not train the students sufficiently to face the
construction world.
Construction Practices – Rift Created
The construction industry in our country has
been in the forefront of the development of the
infrastructural facilities. The toils of thousands of
people in building the nation have brought glory
and international recognition to this industry.
Paeans sung, there remain a few issues of concern.
Currently, the codes of practice (prescribed by
the Bureau of Indian Standard) and the guidelines
for construction are not adhered to, many a time,
during actual construction. Strict monitoring by
the responsible statutory bodies is not being done
due to resource crunch. Also in rural India and
the slums of urban India, there are “nonengineered” structures for which there are no
code requirements or any regulatory bodies to
oversee such construction work. These loopholes
in the practices are exploited to the hilt.

Changes in the Education System
In order to bridge the gap between the education
system and the construction practices, a few
changes are necessary in the education system.
Firstly, the duration of the UG CE program needs
to be at least five years. About six to eight months
of the extra year should be spent by the students
getting trained at site. During the rest of the time,
the student should attend classroom lectures by
faculty members or professionals having site experience.

With the construction industry playing a major
role in shaping the economy, the codes of practice
and guidelines should reflect the state-of-the-art
construction methods. But these documents are
not revised and updated regularly, e.g., the Indian
code for seismic design of structures, namely
IS:1893, was revised after eighteen years (5th revision of the code came in 2002 after 1984) [2].
Also, many codes do not have elaborate explanations of their provisions and this leads to ambiguities during their implementation.

Secondly, the course curriculum should encourage
students to pursue a career in the construction
industry. Students should do hands-on smallscale construction project work as part of the curriculum with incentives being awarded as encouragement. The designs and details should conform
to the standard codes of practice and guidelines.
Simultaneously, the students should be made
aware about the actual on-site difficulties at every
step. Supplementary site visits supervised by experienced engineers are also desirable.

Another major malady afflicting the construction
industry is the low compensation and salaries. A
civil engineer draws a very low salary as compared to an engineer in the Information Technology, electrical, mechanical or allied field. To compensate for this, the contractor and client get into
shady deals and this, in turn, breeds corruption.

Thirdly, industry-academia interactions need to
be arranged on a regular basis. A novel initiative
was the Summer Camp 2001 [3] held at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur. In that camp
a select group of second year UG CE students
were exposed to the challenges and opportunities
15

in CE through various activities. Such interactions
during the proposed five-year UG program will
definitely motivate the students entering the construction industry, and proper construction practices will be adopted honestly by them.

sion of research and development. Although this
aspect is generally overlooked, this is imperative
for devising efficient construction methods and
employing state-of-the-art practices. Professionals with specialized skills should be employed in
these sections.

Fourthly, students should cultivate the habit of
thinking during the vocational training and the
proposed hands-on project work. This will help
them develop the insight and engineering sense
for devising efficient construction methods.

Concluding Remarks
In any subject, teaching and learning materials
should match and respond to the ever-changing
needs of the professions and society. Construction
industry is no exception to that. The need of the
hour is the interaction between construction professionals and the CE academia on various issues
of construction practices and the ways of improving them. Then only the construction industry can
reach its pinnacle of glorious achievements in the
time ahead.

Last of all, the UG engineering education should
cover the applications of IT and process automation. An integrated course on construction practices, IT and the automated processes will be
helpful with supplementary site visits to see the
applications.
Educating Construction Professionals
The educational institutions need to conduct
separate continuing education programs and
short courses on a few relevant topics, namely (a)
the explanations of the code-specified construction practices, and (b) state-of-the-art construction methods and international practices. Apart
from site engineers and contractors, structural
design engineers should also participate in these
programs. The interactive discussions will enable
all the concerned parties to adopt proper construction methods.

Updates to the article
[1] Contribution of Construction Industry
As of First Quarter of 2011, as per the Central Statistics
Office of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (http://mospi.nic.in/), Government of India,
construction industry contributed nearly 8% to the
growth of Gross Domestic Product of India.
[2] IS:1893
As per the Bureau of Indian Standards, the governing
body responsible for maintaining and upgrading various standards in India, a portion (Part 4) of the Indian
code for seismic design of structures, IS:1893, was updated again in 2005. However this upgrade deals only
with industrial structures. An appropriate search
within http://www.bis.org.in/ will give the reader a
complete picture of the frequency of upgradation of
various Indian standards by the Bureau.

There should be two types of professional training programs, namely (a) multi-disciplinary training, and (b) specialist training programs. Under
the first category, the courses should cover the
architectural, engineering and surveying aspects.
Also, a civil engineer should know the basics of
mechanical, electrical and instrumentation engineering for his complete understanding. Under
the second category, visiting practitioners should
conduct the courses for imparting special skills
and knowledge.

[3] Civil Engineering Summer Camp at IIT Kanpur
Summer Camp for Civil Engineering at IIT Kanpur was
first organized in 2001. The mission of the camp, as
stated on its website is â&#x20AC;&#x153;to provide exposure to second
year civil engineering students from engineering colleges across India, to the challenges and opportunities
in Civil Engineering, towards building a stronger nation
for tomorrow.â&#x20AC;? Since its inception in 2001, the Summer
Camp was organized annually with great success till
2010. The 2011 edition of the camp had to be called off
due to unavoidable circumstances (as stated on the
Camp Website: http://www.iitk.ac.in/summercamp/).

Construction Industry: Things To Be Done
The issues of low compensation and salary of an
engineer need to be addressed urgently and comprehensively. The current trend of underbidding
adds to the misery. If the projects are awarded to
the contractors based on their competence rather
than the lowest fees, then definitely it will not be
demotivating for the professionals involved in the
project. With a balanced education system for the
professionals, the unfair construction practices
can be definitely avoided. Also, the system of professional liability and accountability needs to be
implemented among the practicing professionals.

Kaustubh Dasgupta (kaustubh.dasgupta@gmail.com) is
a Ph D(2008) and M.Tech(2002) graduate from the Civil
Engineering Department, IIT Kanpur. He is an currently
Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering Department at
IIT Guwahati. He specializes in Structural Engineering
and his research interest are Earthquake Engineering,
Design of Reinforced Concrete Structure and Retrofitting
of Structure.

Every construction company should have a divi16

Indian science, civilization and culture:
past and future
Lecture series by Michel Danino and a detailed interview with him
Mohd. Suhail Rizvi and Mohit Kumar Jolly
Eminent Indian civilization historian, conservagive only half a page to India in a book on history
tionist and author Michel Danino delivered a ten
of science or mathematics. The other stand is
-lecture series on ‘Science and Technology in
taken by some over-enthusiasts who claim that
Early and Classical India’ in February and
ancient Indians were omniscient – they knew it
March 2011. Miall from theory of
chel has been a
relativity to quanstudent of Indian
tum
mechanics
civilization since
and from genetic
he came to India
manipulations to
from France in
nuclear weapons.
1977 at the age of
The truth lies
21. He has ausomewhere in bethored many patween these expers and lectured
tremes. Unfortuextensively across
nately, the ancient
the country on
Indian tradition of
India’s scientific
knowledge transheritage,
Indus
fer, being primarCivilization
and
ily oral, does not
problems faced by
provide
many
Indian culture towritten accounts.
day. He has auThe biggest sorthored landmark
row is the dilapibooks such as The Fig 1: Michel Danino during one of his lectures in L-16, IIT Kanpur dation of the existInvasion
that
Never Was (2000), The Lost River: On the trail of
Sarasvati (2010) and Indian Culture and India’s
Future (2011). He also convened International
Forum for India’s Heritage (IFIH) in 2001 to promote the essential values of India’s heritage in
daily lives.

ing ancient Indian
literature and evidences in India itself. Only 7% of
around 11,000 existing ancient manuscripts of
texts of science preserved in Kerala and Tamil
Nadu have been examined and read. Comparing
this with China, which has had some enthusiastic
scholars like Joseph Needham whose works have
culminated into the voluminous series Science
and Civilization in China, Indian science has not
yet found its Needham.

The lectures followed a chronological development of science and technology from ancient to
pre-modern India, using specific case studies and
the social environment of science in India in those
days; and concluded with asking the pertinent
question why Indian science and mathematics
failed to move on to ‘modern science’. Following
is the summary of the series of lectures given by
him.

Science, as it is defined today, is a modern concept; the ancient Indian mind did not apply this
definition to study the nature. In ancient India,
nature was studied by means of poetry, mythology and philosophy; and the religious and social
practices were deeply intertwined with science
and its developments. For example, Jyotisha, primarily a combination of astronomy and mathematics, was developed to keep the calendars, fix
the dates for seasonal sacrifices or predict the
occurrences of eclipses. The Shulba Sutras, treatises of sacred geometry, were instruction manu-

There are generally two extremes views of India’s
contribution to science and mathematics. The
first, taken by some western authors, considers
Indian contributions to be limited to the decimal
place-value system of numeral notation, and thus
17

Fig 2: Layout of Varanasi (left) as based on astronomical alignments (right) embedded in the city design
als for the construction of vedic altars (vedi) as
they describe complex geometrical construction
with bricks of various sizes and shapes. One of
such sutras gives the value of square root of two
as 577/408 or 1.414215 which is correct to fifth
decimal place. Vastu Shastra, the science of architecture, describes the design of temples and cities
as representations of the cosmos. Studies performed by German archaeologist Holger Wanzke
on Mohenjo-daro’s town planning and U.S. astrophysicist J. McKim Malville on the layout of ancient Indian cities (including Chitrakut and Varanasi) highlight the importance of astronomical
alignments embedded in city as well as temple
layouts (Fig 2).

compass and scale), estimation of the value of pi,
the cyclic method of Bhaskaracharya (chakravala)
for the shortest integer solution of a quadratic
equation, and the units of weight and length. A
notion of rationale or proof (upapatti) also exists
in the works of some ancient Indian mathematicians. Not only was the decimal place-value numeral notation discovered in India, but also these
numbers were often denoted with names having
mythological meaning related to a particular
number, instead of numerals, thus depicting the
confluence of religious and scientific mind. Georges Ifrah, in his book The Universal History of
Numbers, gives a detailed account of India’s contribution to the decimal numeral notation and notes that
“A thousand years ahead of
Europeans Indian savants knew
that zero and infinity were mutually inverse notions”.

Unlike the Greeks who were
interested in absolute laws/
rules or in axiomatic foundations of science, the approach
adopted in ancient India was
highly holistic and applicaMathematical concepts are
tion-oriented. This attitude of
also found in the background
doing ‘science’ gave rise to
of purely religious texts. The
interest in pragmatic methAvatamsaka Sutra, a Buddhist
ods such as efficient formulas
text, depicts a network of
and algorithms. A few inpearls placed in heaven by Instances of the outcomes of
dra in a way that in each pearl
Fig 3: Baudhayana calculation of
such interests include accuone can see the reflection of all
the Pythagorus theorem
rate astronomical calculaothers. (Fig 4) A recent mathetions, Shulba Sutra Prameya
matical study has demon(Fig 3, also known as Pythagorus theorem) by
strated that these pearls follow the arrangement
Baudhayana, geometrical constructions (without
of circles in a Schottky group. Similarly, a
18

comment on a hymn of Rigveda (1.50.4)
by Sayana, a fourteenth-century Vedic
commentator records:
tatha ca smaryate yojnanam
sahasre dve dve sate dve ca yojane
ekena nimisardhena kramamana
“Thus it is remembered:
[O Surya] you who traverse
2,202 yojana in half a nimesa.”
With a yojana of 13.6 km (which is defined as 8000 average human heights of
1.7m) and a nimesa of 16/75th of a second, this accounts to 280,755 km/s which is only
6% short from the speed of light as known today.

Fig 4: Indra’s Pearls
origin from 2000 BCE which is very much like the
geometry of the Shulba Sutras.
On the technological front, many metallurgical
and chemical advances like fabrication of wootz
steel (which was prized all over the Greek and
Roman world), methods for extraction of oils for
medicinal and perfumery purposes, iron-smelting
techniques, corrosion-resistant metals (Delhi Iron
Pillar is a famous example) and water management technologies bewilder the modern scientific
mind. Sushruta, probably the world’s first plastic
surgeon, lists 220 surgical instruments in his Sushruta Samhita. The notion of Dashavatar (Fig 6,
ten incarnations of the divine consciousness)
holds some intuitive idea of the concept of
biological evolution: the first avatar has the body
of a fish, the second an amphibian, the third a
mammal, the fourth a half-man half-animal, the
fifth a short man. Later stages represent a spiritual evolution.

In India, there were two parallel traditions for the
sustenance of scientific knowledge: Shastra
(theory) and Loka-parampara (practice). This
created an enriching interface between theory
and practical knowledge and thus sciences like
Ayurveda gained knowledge from folk traditions
such as bone-setting and herbal preparations.
Even today, much traditional knowledge has been
documented from rural and tribal communities.
For instance, in Kerala some healers of snake
bites can cure a patient by getting two villagers,
after chewing medicinal herbs, to blow into the
ears of the patient. The All-India Coordinated Research Project on Ethnobiology (AICRPE), a committee appointed by the Government of India,
reported that tribals are familiar with about 9500
species of plants including 7500 medicinal ones.
India’s fascination with large numbers is beautifully illustrated in the Persian and Arabic story of
Sessa, a clever brahmana who designed the game
of chaturanga (chess). The king was so pleased
with the demonstration of the game that he told
Sessa to ask for any reward. Sessa humbly requested one grain of wheat on the first square of
the board, two on the second, four on the third
and so on. In order to calculate the total number
of grains, the king had to call mathematicians
from neighbouring kingdom. They worked out the
number to be 264 – 1 (Fig 5). The embarrassed
king was saved by a clever minister who asked
Sessa to go to the granary and count the grains
himself. In addition to advances in large numbers,
efficient mathematical algorithms and accurate
astronomical calculations were devised by Indian
mathematicians long before occidentals. Historian
of mathematics A. Seidenberg compared Greek
and Babylonian geometry with the Shulba Sutras
and found that the latter’s geometry cannot be
derived from Greek or Babylonian geometry, but
Greek and Babylonian geometry have a common

Despite these advances, Indian science and technology could not produce a ‘scientific revolution’.

Fig 5: Chess (Chaturanga)
19

The reasons for this are
complex, but they include
the destruction of centers
of learning and libraries in
north India, a consequent
disruption of mechanisms
of transmission of knowledge and manuscripts
among savants, a lack of
patronage of mathematicians and astronomers by
kings (if we compare with
the patronage given to the
arts), and the absence of a
desire to conquer and
colonize other parts of the
earth, which would have
required further technological advances. In any
case, India’s scientific progress slowed down in medieval age. Under the British colonial rule, ‘Western’
science gradually replaced
Fig 6: Dashavatar (ten incarnations of the divine consciousness)
India’s traditional disciplines. At the same time,
Indian philosophy and spirituality travelled to the
NERD: Please share with us some intercultural
West, and we see, for instance Swami Vivekanexperiences you had in the first few years.
anda discussing Vedantic ideas with Nikola Tesla
Michel: The major experience was that I felt perand influencing Kelvin and Helmholtz. Later, Erfectly at home here in India. I had never really felt
win Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg acquite at home in France for reasons I cannot exknowledged their debt to Indian thoughts and
plain; but I felt completely myself and absorbed in
concepts.
Auroville. This feeling of being at home cannot be
decided and described on an intellectual basis.
NERD team had a detailed interview with Michel
NERD: After settling in Auroville, what was the
and his partner Nicole after the lectures, on his
first study you undertook?
work related to ancient Indian science and civiliMichel: In those days, various communities in
zation and his views on the future of Indian culAuroville were attempting different ways of conture. Some excerpts:
trolling soil erosion, which was the major probNERD: What was your motivation behind your
lem in the Auroville terrain then. I tried to docudecision to come to India at the age of 21 and
ment those attempts in eco-restoration; besides, I
then study here?
helped to bring out a bilingual magazine in EngMichel: My initial motivation was to come and
lish and French. Very soon, I developed an inclilive in Auroville, an international township in
nation towards books and publications related to
Tamil Nadu located close to Pondicherry. It was
Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. This kept us (me
founded on the ideas of Sri Aurobindo and the
and Nicole) busy together. In 1982, when we
Mother. Sri Aurobindo was a spiritual master well
were called to a small institution in the Nilgiris,
known for his role in the revolutionary movement
we dedicated ourselves to this work much more
in the first decade of the twentieth century. The
intensively. It is through Sri Aurobindo that I dekind of experiment Auroville was — human beveloped interest in the study of ancient Indian
ings coming from all over the globe and attemptcivilization, its history, archaeology etc., because
ing something together — fascinated me. I had
he was interested not just in spirituality, but in
been in touch with it for some years while in
making sense of the Indian civilization. He wrote
France, and I decided to take the plunge. This is
an extraordinary book called The Foundations of
what initially drew me there — and then I stayed
Indian Culture in which he tried to bring out varion.
ous features that have made India stick together
20

in every aspect of life through all these ages. That
was a starting point for me; I wanted to see how
that would be updated, since Sri Aurobindo’s
book was written almost a century ago.

although one finds no evidence of this in Indian
literature or protohistory.

I tried to bring out in my study that there was no
archaeological trace of the arrival of the Aryans in
NERD: Coming to your work now, you wrote a
the 2nd millennium BCE: such a migration would
book, The Invasion That Never Was, in 2000 in
have involved the emergence of new types of arwhich you criticized the Aryan invasion theory
tefacts — new weapons, vehicles, handicrafts, art
emphasizing that they were indigenous to India.
forms, etc. — and it’s well established now that
What did you base your criticism on and how was
no such evidence has been found in the second
it received?
millennium BCE. In fact,
Michel: The book actually “The Aryan invasion is not some archaeologists now are
first came out in a shorter required to explain the evo- proposing that the Indus
edition in 1996, and then in a
Civilization
gradually
much enlarged one in 2000, lution of Indian civilization.” evolved to the classical
which ran out of print in
Gangetic Civilization of the
2003. The grounds for criticizing the theory are
first millennium BCE. The Aryan invasion or minot really mine but they have been highlighted by
gration is not required to explain the evolution of
many scholars beginning with Swami VivekanIndian civilization. Also, the Rig Veda, India’s most
anda, Sri Aurobindo, Dr. Ambedkar, besides Westancient text which is supposed to have been comern anthropologists, archaeologists and even biposed by the mythical Aryans soon after their
ologists.
arrival, makes no mention of their arrival. It
would be natural for the Aryans to feel nostalgic
There were two reasons behind the Aryan invafor their land of origin, but there is not a word to
sion theory: one was to explain the linguistic conthat effect in the entire Rig Veda. Instead, they
nection between the European languages and
clearly belong to the Saptasindhu, which is PunSanskrit, which became obvious once the Eurojab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Pakistan today, as if
pean scholars were able to read Sanskrit somethe incoming Aryans had got struck with amnesia
time in the late eighteenth century. To explain
and forgotten all about their long migration to
this connection in those days, in the absence of
India. Correspondingly, in south India’s Sangam
today’s more complex models, the only explanaliterature, which goes back to the second or third
tion envisaged was that of migration; that is to
century BCE, we find no recollection of a trausay, if two languages were somewhat related,
matic invasion or cultural clash with invading
then one had to imagine a migration from A to B
Aryans.
or B to A, or from C to A and B. This is known as
the ‘migrationist model’. Today it is well underNERD: In your book The Lost River: On the Trail of
stood that languages can travel without people
the Sarasvati (Penguin Books, 2010), you present
having to migrate; for example, Sanskrit migrated
evidence that the river Sarasvati was present in
to many parts of Asia through an increased interwhat is Haryana and Rajasthan today, but the curest in Sanskrit texts, not through a migration of
rently held belief is that Sarasvati is one of the
Indian people.
rivers that meet at the Triveni Sangam in Allahabad. What, in your opinion, is the reason behind
The second reason was the colonial context: the
this common belief?
British colonial powers tried to divide Indian soMichel: The Sarasvati joining the Ganga and Yaciety by propagating a theory portraying the upmuna at Prayag (Allahabad) is a recent tradition
per castes as descended from the Aryans, and the
which you will not find anywhere in the Vedas.
lower castes as descendants of the indigenous
The Rig Veda clearly states that the Sarasvati
people whom the Aryans subdued. Another divide
flowed westward between Yamuna and Sutlej.
-and-rule strategy was the division between
Even the Mahabharata records the Sarasvati as
North Indians and South Indians: the Aryans inflowing through Kurukshetra (in Haryana) all the
vading from the North drove the indigenous Draway to Prabhas in Gujarat; this is the only Sarasvidians southward where they eventually settled,
vati the Mahabharata knows. Sarasvati at Prayag

“This is the way the Indian mind functions — the memory should
be preserved and the worship should continue, while the geographic details and accuracy are a minor consideration.”
21

is a tradition which comes later on, in the Puralonging among the people so successfully that
nas, and, in fact, there are many more Sarasvatis
they even spread beyond India. The whole of
in India: two in Gujarat, two in Haryana, one in
Southeast Asia was mesmerized by them. Even
Rajasthan, among others. My proposition has
the walls of the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia
been that after the westward-flowing Sarasvati
depict some of their stories in a grand manner.
dried up around 2000 BCE, the hundreds of
They continue to be re-enacted in Indonesia, a
Harappan settlements that had flourished along
Muslim nation, as part of its cultural heritage. I
its banks (they have been identified on the
believe that such cultural integration gives people
ground) had to be abandoned; some of the Late
a sense of belonging, and that’s why this kind of
Harappans migrated into the Gangetic plains, but
unification of different communities, castes and
so as not to forget that river, they conjured up
social levels has been very successful in keeping
Sarasvati’s presence at Prayag. It is curious that
the whole land together for long. Today, Western
the only river to be given the status of a goddess
countries are talking of multiculturalism, espein the Rig Veda was the Sarasvati, so the Harapcially in Europe, but their leaders have admitted
pans were apparently quite attached to it (or her,
that their models have failed, because they were
rather!) and were keen to multiply her on the
trying to keep people together without any real
landscape so that they would remember her. This
integration. Cultural integration is something
is the way the Indian mind functions: the memory
which the West could perhaps learn from India —
should be preserved and the worship should confor it can be done only on the basis of certain
tinue, while the geographic details and accuracy
deep values.
are a minor consideration. Hence, the Harappans
NERD: You also
created
an
started the In“Indian
civilization
is
the
only
ancient
civili‘invisible’ Sarasternational Fovati which peozation
persisting
till
today.
The
two
great
rum for India’s
ple later on emin
bellished with epics – Ramayana and Mahabharata – gave Heritage
2001.
Please
tell
the story of a
India its cultural unity and integration.” us about the
river
flowing
ethos of this
underground.
forum and some of the initiatives you have taken.
NERD: Moving on from ancient to current India
Michel: It is a network of scholars and we have
now. You have written a book Indian Culture and
done a few projects like interviewing 11,000
India’s Future, in which you say that the essential
school children across India about their views on
values of the Indian civilization and culture reIndian education (that project was sponsored by
main indispensable in today’s critical phase of
the NCERT). We have been feeling that there is no
global deculturalization and dehumanization.
valid reason why India’s cultural heritage should
Please elaborate on what those values are.
be kept out of the schooling system. In France,
Michel: You can figure them out easily if you constudents are obliged to know about French literasider a single fact — the persistence of the Indian
ture, thinkers and philosophy, so that after twelve
civilization. With the partial exception of China,
years of schooling they will have some notion of
there is no known ancient civilization surviving
French culture; but in India, students develop no
today. Today’s Greek has no contact with Plato or
intelligent understanding of the country’s unifySocrates and today’s Egyptian has no contact with
ing culture. That was one of our motivations bethe Pyramids, but in India, the antiquity of the
hind the creation of this forum.
culture has persisted, and it has persisted because
But it is not enough to just point shortcomings, so
of certain highly effective mechanisms within the
we are trying to create educational material on
society, especially a certain cultural integration
Indian culture and heritage. We cannot give stucreating a sense of unity across India’s geography.
dents scholarly material for every branch of anHow was that worked out?
cient Indian knowledge, so we are working toThe consensus among the scholars is that more
wards a series of interactive multimedia educathan the Vedas or the Upanishads, it was the two
tional DVDs. The first of them will be on science
great Epics — the Ramayana and the Mahaband technology in ancient India, which was the
harata — that were widely adopted across India,
theme of my lectures here at IIT Kanpur. In a few
freely adopted and transformed from region to
months, we will see how this initiative is received.
region. You will be hard pressed to find a place in
NERD: Coming to your lectures on Indian science
India where Rama or the Pandavas or some Rishi
at IIT Kanpur, do you think it is valid to examine
did not come by. The Epics created a sense of be22

the knowledge of those sciences
need this kind of open-mindedness
against the current ‘infallible’ scirather than rush to declare everyence? The current scientific setup
thing in the past as ignorant or suraises questions about some other
perstitious.
points such as treatment of snake
bites.
NERD: Most of us see our traditions
Michel: I brought in some examples
as a set of superstitions and talk of
to point out that modern science
spreading a scientific temper. Where
can hardly be regarded as complete,
and how, do you think, some stories
let alone infallible. Any honest sciin our history evolve into superstientist will tell you that so many
tions; for example we should change
things still defy explanation. Science
our way if a black cat crosses the
does not claim completeness, but
path?
scientists are very attached to the
Michel: The original spirit of rituals
scientific method. It includes tests
is to connect us to the universe, but
for falsifiability, a valid concept in
somewhere along the way they demy opinion, but we need to be caregenerate and people start sacrificing
ful to see how far it can test ancient Fig 7: LateProf. Balasubrama- for tangible results —wealth, a son,
ways of functioning. For example, in niam hugging Delhi Iron Pillar fame... To avoid this, traditions
the case of snake bites, if you saw
should evolve with time, otherwise,
the video clip showing a traditional method adwe get stuck with meaningless rituals that can
ministered to a krait bite (in which two people
result in superstition, since their original spirit
blow into the ears of the patient after chewing
and hence their intrinsic value are lost. If the
medicinal plants), the method would make no
original meaning is revived and people are happy
sense to a modern doctor. The only way he/she
with that, I see no problem with it.
can assess such a methodology is to look at the
NERD: Coming to science education in schools,
statistics as to how many people with lethal bites
the way science is taught in India creates an imgot cured this way. The explanation of this procpression in young minds that science is someess is as tough as the explanation of Ayurveda,
thing that is done overseas. Do you think that this
because, in spite of being internally consistent,
leads to a lack of pride in Indian science and
Ayurveda defies modern explanation through
hence in our culture?
present-day medical science. You may say that
Michel: For various reasons which I would not go
the three doshas — vata, pitta and kapha — are
into in this interview, the Indian education sysnot scientific entities that can be seen under the
tem has kept Indian heritage out of sight of the
microscope, yet Ayurveda works. So, in India’s
student. This creates an impression, as you say,
traditional knowledge systems, there are things
that all knowledge comes from the West and
which science can assess and things it cannot.
therefore a subconscious thought that India never
I believe that scientists have to be open-minded,
generated any worthwhile knowledge. It is a
but honest assessments can be made and some
skewed perspective that Indian education imgroups in India are working towards that — testprints on young Indian minds. Students are told
ing ancient technologies to see how far they could
that the numerals taught in school are ‘Arabic
be of use to advanced
numerals’, but it is an
technologies in the fields
“The Indian education system accepted fact by all histoof metallurgy, agriculrians of science that they
ture, medicine and other has kept Indian heritage out of originated in India in the
areas. For example, here
Brahmi script. Why can’t
sight of the student.”
at IIT Kanpur, (Late)
the teachers explain this?
Prof. R. BalasubramaWhen students learn to
niam worked out the precise metallurgical techcount with the decimal system of numeral notanology used to create rustless iron pillars (such as
tion, why can’t it be introduced for what it is — an
the famous one in New Delhi’s Qutub Minar comIndian creation (Fig 8)? Ironically, one of the best
plex– Fig 7) and other artefacts; in short this anhistories on the decimal system of numeral notacient iron had a high phosphorous content, and he
tion was written by a French scholar (Georges
found that there was scope for applying the same
Ifrah), who praised Indian savants for this
techniques to stop or slow down the rusting of
achievement. It is natural to know what our couniron used for rails or in concrete structures. We
try has contributed in terms of knowledge.
23

So we are proposing that India’s contribution to
science should be integrated in the educational
system and teachers should tell students about
them. Let me repeat that what we call ‘science’ is
not ‘Western science’: modern science has had
important inputs from India, China, Mesopotamia
and other parts of the world, and these inputs are
now more and more acknowledged.

then Lagrange and Laplace did before reaching
the final form of the expression — it would be
easier to approach. As a student of science in
France, I was also given clues towards the history
of science to understand how this knowledge
took shape. Most students would be excited to
know that so many great minds all over the world
toiled for so long, often getting it wrong.

NERD: Coming to an “If you just want to get a degree and The problem is that in
even more basic quesIndia, history is taught
tion, why do we need job, you don’t need to know the his- the wrong way. It’s all
to study at all the hisabout dates and wars
tory of science; but to understand a and dynasties and
tory of science?
Michel: It is like askhence
meaningless
ing why we need to bit more about the country you live and boring. The stuknow about the evoludent is not able to rein, you need to know it.”
tion of ideas. At a very
late to the history. I
crude level, to get a degree and a job, you don’t
have not come across many students of history
need it; but to understand a bit more about the
showing real interest in their subject. That is very
country you live in, to answer the question who
unfortunate. We should change drastically the
you are (because it is related to what is India
pedagogy for history and the way we look at it —
about), you need to know something of what anbecause it is a part of us. It helps you to undercient Indian thinkers, astronomers, mathematistand yourself and hence your identity. History
cians, chemists, physicians really achieved. The
should be a fascinating topic taught creatively
limited availability of genuine material has led to
through plays, research and visits to local sites. I
many spurious, exaggerated claims that ancient
have always said that you should start from local
Indians had vimanas flying through the skies, nuhistory and geography and build it up from there.
clear power, etc. We have to fill the void with
genuine information so that those who are
interested can pursue them.
History of science is a recognized academic
discipline in the West; you can do a masters
and a PhD in it. The problem is that it is multidisciplinary: it integrates not only science
but also fields like history, anthropology and
archaeology, and is therefore quite demanding. It has not been able to find a home in the
Indian academic scenario which is very compartmentalized. I hope the situation will
evolve as the need to study this valuable discipline gains recognition.
NERD: Coming to the establishment of history
of science as an academic discipline, not many
elite science institutes in the country expose
their students to it and the humanities department is just considered a service department.
What is your opinion about exposing science
students at both graduate and undergraduate
level to these important aspects?
Michel: I believe that if it is done in a creative
way, most students would love it. Generally,
the final result is given to a student of mathematics to be swallowed; but if it were given to
him or her as an evolutionary process — to
understand what Newton and Leibnitz and

Fig 8: Evolution of numeral 4
24

NERD: Let’s talk about the attitude of Indians. Yog
message to young Indians would be to explore the
has been practised by Indian Yogis for long but
meaning of being Indian and India’s contributions
today’s Indian did not practice Yog till it was apto knowledge.
preciated by the West and returned to India as
NERD: You have been giving lectures on Indian
Yoga. What, according to you, is responsible for
civilization and people have been very open to
this blind following attitude of Indians?
your ideas. Do you think you would have been
Michel: Yog is a Hindi word and Yoga is its Sanreceived in the same way had you been an Indian?
skrit equivalent. But I understand your question.
Michel: First of all, I am an Indian as I took Indian
It is true in a cersome
tain class of the “The ‘uneducated’ Indian knows what it citizenship
years
back.
To
reIndian population
phrase
the
question
but mostly in the means to be Indian and the significance
and include skin
urbanized
class.
colour, I think the
of
his
traditions.
Ironically,
the
problem
The fact that the
answer would be
West adopted Yoga
comes
with
Indian
education.”
yes and no. It may
in such a big way
have initially helped
had a ripple effect back home, but not with the
as
people
wondered
how
someone
with a fair skin
mass of the population. I have come across people
has
probed
Indian
culture
to
such
depth. At the
in rural Tamil Nadu practising asanas and
same
time,
if
I
were
talking
rubbish,
the novelty
pranayama, and it is a part of their culture somewould
soon
wear
off!
I
have
to
make
sure that I
how. They have no clue what happens in America.
bring
something
of
substance.
My
approach
has
Hence, you are partly right that the ‘educated’
been
basically
to
be
objective
and
bring
out
genuIndian is hypnotized by the West, but the
ine material, presenting the entire picture in as
‘uneducated’ Indian knows what it means to be
neutral a manner as possible.
Indian and the significance of his traditions. Ironically, the problem comes with Indian education. It
NERD: Shifting to Nicole, please tell us about your
is a reflection of the colonial hangover, as our
journey with Michel in the past years.
education system has never really been overNicole: I came to India a few years before Michel
hauled and reformed after Independence.
and it was the same love for India that kept us
together. We both felt at home here. We felt intiNERD: In your book India’s Culture and India’s
mate with the land and the people. Whenever we
Future, you refer to the angry young Indian. How
would go abroad on a visit,
do you define such a person
we would yearn to come
“Explore the meaning of
and what is your message to
We would like to do
him/her?
being an Indian and India’s back.
something
for Indian culture
Michel: The angry young
in
India
but
the most imporcontributions
to
knowledge.”
Indian is the one who is uptant
thing
is
the gift of the
set to see the state of things:
connection
with
the
divine
that
India
gives us.
having to bribe one’s way around, to pay so much
to be educated, etc. This is what puts off many
who have aspirations and ideas, and it is absolutely natural. Then they start idealizing the West,
thinking that there is no corruption there. That of
course is valid to an extent, since there are areas
where the West scores above India, such as pollution control and civic discipline, but there are also
social tensions in the West that are ever increasing. Some young Indians, yearning to go to the
West once, get dissatisfied especially with the
concept of consumerism which is the main driving force in Western society. India tried to answer
those questions long back by giving a deeper
meaning to life, which is what causes many Westerners to turn to India. She also insisted on the art
of being happy with little, whereas the West
wants us to be unhappy with much. My only

NERD: Thank you
detailed interview!

Michel and Nicole for the

Mohd. Suhail Rizvi (suhailr@iitk.ac.in) is a PhD student
in the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur. His interests include biomechanics, long trip cycling and studying about Indian history.
Mohit Kumar Jolly (mkjolly@iitk.ac.in) is an M Tech
student in the Department of Biological Sciences and
Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur. He is interested in science
communication and started the campus science and
technology magazine, NERD, in 2008.
This interview is the transcript of an audio interview
with Michel and Nicole, taken for IIT K 90.4 FM. It was
transcribed by Sayak Dasgupta.

25

DOG – EARED: Book review
50 Genetics Ideas You Really Need to Know
Anjaney Kothari
The author, in the introduction
to the book, says: "Without
genetics...we would look at life
with one eye. We are lucky
enough to live at a time when
humanity can finally watch with
two."

ideas expressed in the book very
clear. Many obscure quotes by
scientists appear constantly
which may spoil the fun a bit for
some like they did for this
reviewer. Nevertheless, a bit
more icing on the cake does not
spoil the entire feast.

In a time when some or the
other word related to one of the
If one were to encourage people
most important life sciences,
who are not too enthusiastic
Genetics, is conspicuous in eveabout biology to read this book,
rybody's vocabulary, Mark Hen(s)he would say that this book
derson has written a book
owes all its readers a wonderful
which discusses it all, in a fashrealization, that how painstaking
ion that would increase anyserendipity could be and yet
one's inclination towards the
how serendipitous painstaking
wonderful world of biology.
could be, in science. In short, the
ISBN: 978-1-84724-671-4
Commencing from the genetics
author has discoursed giant
Publisher: Quercus
of evolution, this book tracks
genetics ideas with incredible
Author: Mark Henderson
the evolution of genetics from
lucidity, which makes ‘50
Binding: Hardback with Jacket
genes to gene patenting, from
Genetics Ideas You Really Need
Publishing Year: 2008
cancer to 'designer' babies, from
to Know’ a book you really need
Number of Pages: 208
Mendelian inheritance to epigeto read.
Language: English
netics, from genetic determinPrice: INR 324 (on Flipkart.com)
ism to artificial life. Commenting Book Club Availability: 0 (on website) About the Author: Mark Henderson
meticulously on many such topMark Henderson, a graduate in
ics, the author has made this book sprawl beautimodern
history
from
the Oxford University, is the
fully across the past, present and future of Genetscience
editor
of
The
Times. He lives in London
ics. Controversial topics like homosexuality, races
and
finds
genetics,
reproductive
medicine and
and intelligence of human beings have been disregenerative
medicine
(including
stem cell recussed from the science perspective, serving as an
search)
quite
interesting.
He
has
won
several coveye opener against many stereotypes on these
eted
awards
in
science
journalism.
issues.
Anjaney Kothari (anjaney@iitk.ac.in) is a second
Each chapter has been enriched with a timeline of
year Undergraduate Student in the Department of
events related to the ideas, discoveries or experiBiological Sciences and Bioengineering at IIT Kanments discussed in the chapter. The 'condensed
pur. His academic interests are genetics, artificial
idea' that the author wishes to convey to the
life synthesis and linguistics. When he is not thinkreaders through each chapter is highlighted at the
ing of growing peas like Mendel, he likes to read
end of each chapter in crisp and clear words. At
Agatha Christie novels, write stories and poems
the end, a glossary of the biology jargon used in
and paint.
the book has been presented, which makes the
BOOK REVIEW IN THE NEXT ISSUE (V4 N2): Find the review of the book ‘Genome: An autobiography of a
species in 23 Chapters’ published in 1999, by eminent popular science author Matt Ridley. Watch out for
this section in V4N2 of NERD to see what Sashank Pisupati thinks of this book which was described as
‘lucid and exhilarating’ by the co-discoverer of DNA, James Watson!
26

From dialogue to learning
Interview with Dr. Suchitra Mathur
Mohit Kumar Jolly and Swapnika Reddy
Dr. Suchitra Mathur has been a faculty member in the Humanities and Social Sciences department since
2000. Well known among the student community for her interesting classes in HSS I and II level courses,
she has also been very active in various student activities and festivals. She also received the Gopal Das
Bhandari Memorial Outstanding Teacher Award 2011 – an annual award given to a faculty member
chosen by the graduating undergraduate batch. NERD team members had the privilege of an exclusive
interview with her regarding her experiences as a teacher, researcher and a member of the IIT Kanpur
community. Here are some excerpts:
NERD: You have been a faculty member in this
on this campus as a faculty kid, so I applied to IIT
institute for more than a decade now. What is the
Kanpur as well. Honestly, I really did not know
most distinguishing feature you feel about the
then what I, as an English teacher, would do in an
institute?
IIT. But it took me just one semester to figure out
Dr. Mathur: I would like to answer that question
that this was where I wanted to be. All thanks to
in two ways. Looking from a historical perspecthe students I taught in that first semester here! I
tive, what has always attracted me to IIT
was lucky enough to be teaching a level II
Kanpur as an institute and what I hope to
HSS course and I interacted extensively
see continuing is its democratic tradiwith third and fourth year students. I
tions. The model of self governance in
realized that I would not find that level of
faculty as well as the student body has
interest in literature and the kind of enbeen that of democratic functioning.
gagement with it among students anyWhat I mean here is not only election of
where else.
representatives but also the spirit of deNERD: Students respect you for the way
bate and engagement with everything
you have taken many HSS I and II level
around oneself. But over the past few
courses, and you recently received the
years, I have felt that this spirit has been
Gopal Das Bhandari Memorial Award.
endangered by a variety of factors, priWhat pedagogical techniques adopted by
marily by the apathy of the people inyou
make
you so different?
volved; and I am hoping against hope that those
Dr.
Mathur:
I am very honoured to receive the
traditions will be revived.
award
and
would
like to thank the outgoing batch
Another distinguishing feature of IIT Kanpur for
for
it.
Frankly,
I
am
not so sure about the idea of
me has been the enormous amount of innovation
being
different.
The
teaching
culture in this instiand energy brought in by the students. Be it
tute
is
another
distinguishing
feature of IIT Kanawards won by students in innovation-based
pur
and fortunately,
competitions, the enthere
are many excel“A
distinguishing
feature
of
IIT
thusiasm brought to
lent
teachers
on the
various socio-cultural
Kanpur has been the enormous campus in all departactivities, the very existence of NERD itself amount of innovation and energy ments. I have learnt
from the pedagogical
being a prime example brought in by the students.”
techniques used by
I have always marvelled
various faculty memat it in all fields.
bers and the informal feedback by students in the
NERD: A faculty member in the Humanities and
class.
Social Sciences department in an engineering inI think of the classroom as a place where learning
stitute – what made you choose such a unique
takes place. That may sound obvious, but I want
post?
to distinguish it from teaching taking place,
Dr. Mathur: I was teaching in the US and wanted
because I think of teaching as more of a one way
to move back to India. IIT Kanpur has always held
activity where it is assumed that somehow
a very special place in my heart because I grew up
27

knowledge can be delivered by an individual
standing at one end of the classroom to a bunch of
students sitting at the other end. I am not denying
that this happens – it can happen effectively. I got
educated in that system, but I have felt over time
that a more interactive classroom where teachers
and students are engaged in learning in an active
fashion as a mutual enterprise is more exciting. I
believe that learning takes place through active
participation; and I have tried to implement this
in my courses as far as possible.

the differences in the idea of an ‘evening walk’
and ‘walking as an exercise’, how does it really
relate to the socio-economic context within which
we live and act – this would be a cultural studies
project.

Now within this field, popular culture is defined
in two very different ways. One is in terms of
mass consumption - such as studying the music
industry, film industry or the comic-book industry. The other way is its link to folk culture. Folk
culture and its study has a longer tradition in InNERD: Please tell us about some of your most
dia and abroad, but mass culture studies is relainteresting experiences in the classroom.
tively new and is facing challenges in getting esDr. Mathur: Classroom experience for me is detablished as an academic discipline because
fined by interaction with students, and I would
things for mass consumption are assumed to be
divide these into rewarding on the one hand and
too banal to be worthy of study. We have the idea
stimulating on the other. Rewarding is where an
of ‘high culture’ and ‘low culture’; but popular
experience of learning takes place – the exciteculture studies intervenes in this by saying that so
ment you see in students is immensely gratifying.
-called ‘low’ or popular culture is also worthy of
For instance, in a course I teach on feminist thestudy, with a different perspective though. When I
ory, many a times the students have had the sudstudy high culture, say classical music, it is with
den realization as ‘Oh! This is what is meant by
the idea of understanding and developing an apgender issues in our everyday lives’ and thus
preciation for it, but is it the same with, say Hindi
linked up what is being learnt in a course with
cinema? Probably not, but I can understand it in
their own lives. Examples of stimulating experiterms of the effects it has and the role it plays in
ences have been
shaping Indian socifrom courses in
ety. So, popular cin“I think of the classroom as a place
which
I
have
ema starts being
looked at science where learning takes place, and this is treated as a product
fiction, and we have
– an example
different from teaching taking place.” here
had the most excitof a cultural coming discussions on
modity; and popular
how we define science and what qualifies as sciculture studies understands how cultural comence etc. I have learnt so much from my students
modities circulate in a society.
through such discussions.
Recently, I have become involved with Indian sciNERD: Coming to your research areas, can you
ence fiction being written in English - looking at
please explain what is popular culture studies all
what is being produced and how it engages with
about and what have you been working on?
the definition of science especially within the InDr. Mathur: Popular cultural studies is a specific
dian context. Again, things like science fiction are
subset of cultural studies. In humanities and sonot considered ‘high literature’ often; hence it
cial sciences, we generally look at society and culfalls into popular culture. One reads Asimov and
ture through specific lenses, say the sociological
doesn’t think of it as reading literature. One reads
lens, the psychological lens, the literary lens etc.
‘Literature’ when one reads Shakespeare!
Cultural Studies tends to bring it all together to
<Smiles>
examine the way in which we live, and tries to
NERD: You have also been active in science ficgive a definition of culture and its function in socition, and you organized a summer workshop reety through an interdisciplinary perspective to
lated to the same in 2009. How did you get interunderstand why we do what we do. Cultural Studested in science fiction?
ies, in this sense, becomes the study of the everyDr. Mathur: Completely because of my students
day, of things that we take completely for granted.
here. I enjoyed science fiction, but I have never
Let me give you a concrete example. On our cambeen a huge fan. I grew up reading Asimov, I was
pus between 7 and 9pm, you will see many people
a Star Trek fan; but I never, in my remotest
out on the street ‘taking a walk’. Now this comdreams, thought of it as a field of study until I
mon everyday practice is also a cultural activity.
came to this campus and started interacting with
Asking questions like what are the antecedents of
students. Occasionally, a science fiction book
this activity, how is it culturally specific, what are
28

would become a part of the literary discussion
group and the kind of discussion it evoked was
very exciting to me. That’s partly how I got into it.
Also, I felt science fiction to be a way of connecting with a student body that is so deeply rooted in
a science culture.

cure patients exactly as you would use an injection. Among Indian authors, I admire Amitav
Ghosh’s ‘Calcutta Chromosome’, and the work of
Manjula Padmanabhan.
NERD: Please tell us about the initiative you have
been leading - Literary Discussion Group.
Dr. Mathur: The Literary Discussion Group
started in the very first semester I was here.
Three students came up to me after the class and
suggested forming a group where they could just
sit and discuss books; and that is how it began as
we started discussing books over weekends. It
remained a completely informal group, never becoming part of any Gymkhana club. We realized
the need for funding only when we wanted to invite an author from Delhi for a talk. Then we approached the Centre for Creative Writing and
Publication (CCWP), which has since then been an
official sponsor of LDG. What amazes me is that it
has continued for such a long time. It has given
me a great deal of satisfaction because of its informality as it is a forum where the entire campus
community can get together over shared literary
interests.

NERD: Fiction is a manifestation of storytelling or
narrative. What are your views on fiction as a medium for popular communication of science? How
can the teachers of science at different levels incorporate the feature of narrative in their lectures?
Dr. Mathur: Narrative is very fundamental to the
way in which we think and function. Fiction is a
very small part of narrative. If I ask you a question as simple as how was your day, the answer
you would give will be a narrative, a story. You
will organise the events in a certain order and tell
them in a certain fashion. That’s what narrative is
– an arrangement of events in a certain sequence
to convey a certain meaning. Hence it can be used
for absolutely any kind of activity. It is one of our
most fundamental human instincts to tell stories.
Therefore, if it is included in pedagogy, it will be
very exciting because we have all grown up listening to stories, and it is something that interests
us. Thus, it can make teaching much more meaningful to everybody; and I think it can be done
quite easily. In fact, many students have taught
me science through storytelling and I have found
it very exciting. Recently, my twelve year old
nephew was visiting me and I used the word
‘fractal’ in some context. He asked me what that
was, and I found myself repeating a story definition of fractal which a student had once given me.
That is how deep an impact narrative makes on
our memory and understanding.

NERD: CP Snow, the famous British novelist and
surgeon, in 1959, said “People belonging to science and humanities are mutually incomprehensible”. Has your experience at IIT Kanpur been of
a similar kind?
Dr. Mathur: No. These are very stereotypical notions and of course, occasionally you may find
people with similar notions on this campus as
well, but I have had no such experience. Although
some may ask why we have an HSS department at
all, in the Institute our department functions not
as an adjunct department having second class
citizenship, but as one which is central to the institute. Also, students often take HSS courses voluntarily as open electives and do projects with
HSS faculty members too.

NERD: Which science fiction works (books or
movies) would you recommend students to follow?
Dr. Mathur: Actually, it has been mostly other
way round. Students have recommended science
fiction movies and books to me. One science fiction author I do admire a lot is Ursula Le Guin.
She writes what I would call speculative fiction
rather than pure science fiction. When we think of
science fiction; we mostly think of space travel,
aliens or artificial intelligence, but what has attracted me to science fiction is the speculative
tendency in it, i.e. giving new ideas about the
world we live in. For example, had the force of
gravity been six times stronger, how would society have restructured itself. I am very fond of
such speculative fiction which gives a broader
meaning to what science is. One of my favourite
stories is about a woman who uses a snake to

Also, I believe that mutual incomprehensibility
has less to do with specific disciplines than with
how one thinks of one’s discipline. If I discuss literature in a highly specialised manner and a person from philosophy talks exclusively in the specialised vocabulary of philosophy, we can be mutually incomprehensible much more so than I
would be to a biologist; hence it has more to do
with how rigid the boundaries are which one
draws around one’s discipline.
NERD: We have been hearing about various attempts for a course on communication skills for
students. Being a member of Academic Review
Committee (ARC), please inform us of some previ29

ous and proposed attempts to teach communicahistory of HSS since its inception, what suggestion skills to students.
tions would you give to upcoming science and
Dr. Mathur: I have a very difficult and complitechnology institutes in setting up their HSS decated relation with the term ‘communication
partments?
skills’. During my eleven years at IIT, there was
Dr. Mathur: I believe that HSS departments set
one attempt to teach ‘communication skills’ here up at any science and technology institute have to
COM 200 and it survived for four years. It was a
be thought of in a more integrative fashion. I
semester long course in the third semester to
really wish that they would not be called HSS deteach various kinds of communication skills. I
partments because this name itself carries the
don’t think anyidea of compartbody was really
“Reducing communication skills to the mentalized discihappy with it –
plines along with
students, faculty ability to converse fluently in English is a it. I think new
or the administrainstitutes should
very reductionist approach.”
tion. The fact that
adopt the apit’s no longer running speaks for itself.
proach of what might be called cultural studies,
When discussions happened in ARC, it was felt
i.e. recognizing that the disciplines function very
that communication skills are something impormuch in conversation with one another, so that
tant that our students lack and hence a sub comscience and technology are integrated with humittee was formed to look into this idea. The submanities and social sciences to form a truly intercommittee report is available to all, so I would not
disciplinary curriculum. For example, I think it is
comment further on that. But in my individual
inexcusable that a science and technology insticapacity, as someone who has taught the COM
tute offers no course on the history of science.
200 course and has been engaged with the probDoes science function in a vacuum without any
lem of ‘communication skills’, I will say that I find
connection to history or society? It does not and
it difficult to accept communication being rehence inculcating such an idea is nothing short of
duced to a skill, thus implying that one can get a
academic negligence.
toolbox which one can just mechanically put to
NERD: You have been very active in student acuse. I believe that this is a wrong approach to
tivities and festivals, and hence in close conneccommunication. First, we have to figure out what
tion with the student body. What changes have
kind of problems one faces with regard to comyou observed in the student-faculty interaction
munication. Reducing communication skills to the
over the last ten years?
ability to converse fluently in English is a very
Dr. Mathur: Student-faculty interaction has sufreductionist approach.
fered a huge loss and this is very sad. It spells disNERD:
As
you
aster for the instirightly pointed out
Efforts should
“I think it is inexcusable that a science tute.
that communication
be made from both
and technology institute offers no
skills are often consides in every way
fused with English
possible to bridge
course on the history of science.”
speaking abilities.
these gaps. We
What, in your opinion, is the reason behind this
need to have repeated conversations amongst
narrow thought among students, faculty and parourselves within the two groups, with each other,
ents?
and be honest in trying to pinpoint the causes and
Dr. Mathur: Cultural cache. If you speak English
come up with solutions.
fluently, you are seen as a more ‘cultured’ person,
NERD: You have been actively involved with the
as someone with a ‘good personality’, and this, of
effort to ensure payment of minimum wages and
course, has to do with our colonial background.
other fronts related to labour rights. What motiPeople believe that the language of power is Engvates you to work for that section of the society?
lish, so if they want power (which usually transDr. Mathur: The institute has three pillars - stulates into earning capacity), they have to be fluent
dents, faculty and staff - but they are not equally
in English. It is simply a way to get oneself into a
weighted. The place would not function for an
powerful moneymaking position, especially in the
hour without the workers. Starting from the concorporate world, and, unfortunately, for a lot of
struction of the lovely building we inhabit to
people, that is the only focus.
equipment management to maintaining the
NERD: You are also a visiting faculty at IIT
greenery of the campus and so on, it is the workGandhinagar. Coming from an institute that has a
ers who make everything we do possible, and to
30

ignore them is criminal negligence. So, my decision to be involved goes back to my firm belief in
democratic traditions. If I am living in a community, I cannot turn a blind eye to any part of the
community, especially a part that is so absolutely
essential to my survival.

sations? Such dialogue and interaction are what
make the campus what it is and allow learning to
take place.
Mohit Kumar Jolly (mkjolly@iitk.ac.in) is an M Tech
student in the Department of Biological Sciences and
Bioengineering at IIT Kanpur. He is interested in science
communication and co-founded NERD, the campus
science and technology magazine, in 2008.

NERD: How would you describe Dr Suchitra
Mathur in one line?
Dr. Mathur: Shouldn’t that be left to others? Honestly, I can’t give you that one word or line! It depends on my mood and relationship with myself
which keeps changing with time! <Laughs>

Swapnika Reddy R (swapnika@iitk.ac.in) is a third year
undergraduate student of Economics. She is passionate
to learn a lot about Applied Microeconomics, Strategic
Interaction and Behavioral Economics. Her other interests are classical music and reading History.

NERD: What final message you have for the students?
Dr. Mathur: I have a problem with the whole idea
of ‘giving messages’. How about leaving it at the
idea, the hope, that we keep having such conver-

This interview is the transcript of an audio interview
with Dr. Mathur, taken for IIT K 90.4 FM. It was transcribed by Swapnika Reddy R and Sayak Dasgupta.

Note from the General Secretary, Science and Technology Council
Through the following three articles— Bipedal Bot, Cracking the Rubik Cube and Rubik’s Cube Solver
Bot– we give you a glimpse of the projects done in various clubs of the Science and Technology Council.
We, at the council, try to innovate and implement your wildest ideas by supporting you with funds and
technical help. A reflection of this can be seen in the projects done by students (mostly from the 1 st year)
in summer vacations where they fabricate their dream projects. “I don’t believe, I find out” is the spirit
we encourage! See you all with more projects to enthuse you in coming issues of NERD.

Bipedal Bot
Aditya Prasad
Introduction
You must have seen the movie ‘Star
Wars’ where robots moved just like
human beings, i.e. on two feet. Such
robots that can walk on two legs
without any external support for
balancing are known as bipedal robots. Let me talk to you about a robot we made. Our robot has two
degrees of freedom of movement
per leg – it cannot bend on its knees,
i.e. its vertical motion is limited; but
it can move and turn easily.

not fixed – it can raise itself on a higher terrain
(Just as you peep above the wall!) by
raising its ankle. But, balancing gets
much more complex involving gyroscopes, accelerometers, etc. if the
robot has to be designed to run as
well, hence we avoided it.
Each leg of our bipedal has the hip
joint and the ankle joint but not the
knee joint, thus the robot can rotate
its each leg about the hip joint with
an axis passing vertically along its
body, and also about the ankle joint
with an axis perpendicular to its
length and going into its plane.
This setup allows our robot to lean
on one leg through the ankle joint
and then rotate the other half of its
body in forward direction. This sequence is symmetrically repeated by
the other leg to complete one step of forward motion of the robot.

What is the main aspect of producing a “stand-and-walk-on-two-legs”
phenomenon? Maintaining balance be it walking on a slippery surface
or an uneven terrain. Our robot can
balance itself just like a human being (except bending on knees) and is
hence much more versatile as compared to other
usual wheel based bots because its base level is
31

Why did we design a bipedal at all? To achieve the
motion of a joint through the use of servo motors;
by developing the electronic circuit, building the
mechanical structure and programming the ATmega16 microcontroller and synchronizing the
motion of the two legs.

pin for GND (Ground terminal) and the third one
for a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signal,
which is the input for the orientation of the servo
shaft.A PWM signal is a clock signal of a fixed frequency but variable duty cycle (ratio of duration
of positive amplitude of the wave to its time period). The standard DC servo we used in this project had the clock frequency of 50Hz (i.e., time
period of the clock = 20ms), and duty cyclebetween 5% and 10% (5% for -90degree and 10%
for +90degree).

As most of you may know, ATmega16, the brain of
a robot, is a microcontroller which has the same
role in a robot just as that of Intel microprocessors in our personal computers. We used ATmega16 to control servo motors.
Basics of servo control
Now, let me take you through the basics of servo
control. A servo motor is used to get precise rotation in terms of angle. It can align its shaft accurately to any angle between its minimum and
maximum value (usually -90 degree and +90 degree respectively). It uses error-sensing negative
feedback to correct the performance of a mechanism. It contains a DC motor linked to a position
feedback potentiometer, gearbox, electronic feedback control loop circuitry and motor drive electronic circuit.
A servo motor has a speed, torque and power as
its attributes. Servo speed is defined as the time
(in seconds) in which a servo arm attached to the
output shaft will move from 0 to 60 degrees.
Servo Torque, measured in kg-cm, is the total
push/pull power a servo can apply on a 1cm arm
when moving; and servo power is defined as the
amount of DC voltage needed to operate a servo
without damage.

Here comes the role of ATmega16 which produces clock signals of different frequencies. The
PWM signal we required could have been produced using ‘Timer-1’ (16bit) of ATmega16 in
‘Fast PWM modetop=ICR1’, but we had to control4 servo motors simultaneously; and the fast
PWM mode can control only one motor at a time.
Hence, we would have required 4 microcontrollers and synchronization among them – that
would have been very complex and impractical.
We solved this problem by producing custom
made timer derived from Timer-0 of the microcontroller. We set the timer-0 to the frequency of
20 kHz and enabled the interrupts. An output pin
was used to produce the clock signal by counting
the number of interrupts and changing the logical
state at required intervals. Theoretically, this configuration should give an angular least count of 9
degree for the servo motor. But, when the above

Each servo motor comes with a three pin connector - first pin for VCC (Positive terminal), second

Top View

Front View
32

Profile Views

setup was put to application, the servo deviated
from its predicted behavior about the duty cycle,
and its least count decreased to 4.5 degrees. Thus,
this method of servo control (by using custom
made derived clocks) proved to be very efficient
for us. In fact, it can control upto 31 servo motors
simultaneously using the Timer-0 of a single ATmega16 microcontroller.

in the angle of inclination of the thigh servo (the
motor that controlled the hip joint) in both the
legs. So, the thigh servos were set to an optimum
angle and a final code was prepared using experimentation, by observing the motion through different codes.
But either leg was not able to instantaneously lift
the other one while moving. To solve this, we decreased the speed of servo but it did not help the
cause completely. So, we changed the code and
now instead of lifting the leg, we relied on leaning
on one leg and dragging the other one. Due to
some possible asymmetry in the two legs, the left
and right turns were not similar. So, different
codes were used to implement both turns. This
worked well and the only problem remaining was
the different speeds for the turns. You can see the
final statistics about the robot we made as given
below:Speed of forward motion :1”per forward sequence
Speed of left turn : 3 cycles for 90 degree turn.
Speed of right turn : 4-5 cycles for 90 degree turn.

Electrical and Mechanical Parts
We used printed development board for ATmega16 and STK500 programmer. The servos
were given power using 7806 IC because the
servo provided more torque when operated on
6V instead of 5V. The only problem faced we
faced was that the current requirement of the
circuit exceeded 5A which is usually the limit of
general power supplies. We solved it easily by
using ATX Power Supply that provided 10A current and 12V voltage which was perfect for us.
The mechanical structure was built mainly by
using readymade parts like angles and hinges
from the game set of ‘MECHANIX’.

Synchronizing the motion of the legs
Here we implemented the theoretical programming into practical motion of the robot. The actual code for the forward, left and right motion
was very different from what we theoretically
predicted. The motion of the bot was very sensitive to the nature of the surface and to any change

About the author
Aditya Prasad is a second year undergraduate in the
department of Material Science and Engineering. He can
be reached at adityapr@iitk.ac.in.

Cracking the Rubik’s Cube
Only the most hardcore puzzle-solvers ever go
beyond the standard 3x3x3 Rubik's cube, attempting much larger ones such as those pictured
on the right. Now an algorithm has been developed that can solve a Rubik's cube of any size. It
might offer clues to humans trying to deal with
these tricky beasts.

thusiasts commonly use to quickly solve the puzzle. Essentially, you try to move a single square, or
‘cubie’, into the desired position while leaving the
rest of the cube as unchanged as possible, but
some other cubies, of course, get disturbed. Thus,
this method is time-consuming, requiring a number of moves that is proportional
to n2. But there is a short-cut
based on ‘cubie paths’. Each cubie
has a particular path that will place
it in the correct position. Demaine's algorithm looks for cubies
that all need to go in the same direction, then moves them at the
same time. Instead of solving one
cubie at a time, it solves several of
them. Grouping cubies with similar paths reduces the number of moves required
by a factor of around log n. This means that the
maximum number of moves that will be required
for a cube of side n now become proportional to
n2/log n.

Last year, a team led by programmer Tomas Rokicki of Palo Alto,
California, showed that even the
most scrambled standard Rubik's
cube can be solved in 20 moves or
less. That feat is a big deal: the
figure has been dubbed ‘God's
number’, the assumption being
that the Almighty couldn't solve it
faster. But it didn't shed light on the monster
cubes. So Erik Demaine, a computer scientist at
MIT, set out to find a general algorithm for solving
a cube with any side-length – of n squares. He
started by looking at a method Rubik's cube en33

Figuring out a single cubie's path without a computer is no easy task, let alone doing it for the
whole cube, so it's unlikely that humans will be
able to directly apply this formula. But Demaine
reckons it could offer cube-solvers a few tips. It's
possible that some of the techniques behind the
algorithm could be applied to speeding up other
problems that involve searching or sorting
through sets of data with a similar mathematical
structure to the cube.

number of moves required by less-scrambled
cubes? Suppose I take a solved 20x20x20 Rubik's
cube and make five moves - can you figure out
[from that scrambled state] what those five
moves were? In other words, can you solve it in
five moves? It is suspected that it can't be done
but this is yet to be proven.
The next task is to find an algorithm that can
solve any 4x4x4 cube in the fewest possible
moves. "It would probably take more CPU time to
solve a single random 4x4x4 position than we
used to prove God's number for the 3x3x3."

So has the Rubik's cube given up all of its secrets?
No. The algorithm only gives an approximate
value for the number of moves required. Another
puzzle remains to be cracked as well. The current
algorithm only finds the most efficient way to
solve a cube if it is in the most scrambled state
possible. Does an algorithm exist for finding the

If you are keen on learning more about cubes and
their eccentricity, we welcome you to the Rubik’s
Cube Hobby Group (RCHG) - a student group under the S&T Council which conduct workshops in
the institute on various cube related puzzles.

Rubik’s Cube Solver Bot
Anuj Agrawal and Deepak Pathak
"It was wonderful, to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed, apparently in random
fashion. It was tremendously satisfying to watch this color parade. Like after a nice walk when you have
seen many lovely sights you decide to go home, after a while I decided it was time to go home, let us put
the cubes back in order. And it was at that moment that I came face to face with the Big Challenge: What
is the way home?" - Erno Rubik
Introduction
One eighth of the world's population has
laid hands on 'The Cube', the most popular puzzle in history and the colorful
brainchild of Erno Rubik. Erno Rubik was
born in Budapest, Hungary during World
War II. His mother was a poet, his father
an aircraft engineer. Rubik studied sculpture in college, but after graduating, he
went back to learn architecture at Academy of Applied Arts and Design.

1974, when the twenty-nine year old Rubik discovered it was not so easy to realign
the colors to match on all six sides. He was
not sure he would ever be able to return
his invention to its original position. He
began working out a solution, starting
with aligning the eight corner cubies and
within a month, he had the puzzle solved
and an amazing journey lay ahead.

We’ve all tried solving a Rubik’s Cube and
a few of us may have solved it at least once
Rubik's initial attraction to inventing the
in our lifetime. All of us know how hard it
Cube was not in producing the best sellcan get to solve it. After all there’s just 1
ing toy puzzle in history. He was intercorrect solution and 43 quintillion wrong
ested in the structural design problemones for a Rubik's Cube, or ‘Magic Cube’!
"How could the blocks move independFor humans it may be a tough job but cerently without falling apart?" Rubik's Cube
tainly not for computers. Well, if you are
is made of twenty-six individual little
thinking of brute forcing all those 43 quincubes or cubies. Each layer of nine cubies
tillion possible permutations with a comcan twist and the layers can overlap. Ruputer - that is not the answer. Thanks to
bik's initial attempt to use elastic bands
some wonderful recent research, any
Stepper Motor
failed, his solution was to have the blocks
given permutation of a Rubik’s cube can
hold themselves together by their shape.
be solved within just 20 steps! And it’s the
Rubik hand carved, assembled the little cubies
God's algorithm that solves the puzzle in the least
together, and started twisting. That was how the
number of moves.
Cube as a puzzle, was invented in the spring of
Erno Rubik

34

shafts to be in a straight line, at an angle of 180°;
but this level of precision was hard to maintain
owing to the manual mounting of motors and
shafts and the constant need to dissemble the
outer acrylic cube to solve the inner Rubik’s cube
while testing process. The non-uniform force and
torque distribution generated on all sides due to
this improper alignment hindered the rotation of
faces; sometimes preventing precise 90° turns. In
a sequence of, say, 200 steps of rotations, even if
one step to make a precise 90° turn fails, the orientation of the cube gets distorted, thus preventing any further steps. The problem has not yet
been solved but we are working on it.
We made our outer frame and the shafts of the
motors of acrylic sheet. We prepared AutoCAD
drawings for all the parts of the mechanical structure and got them fabricated using the 4I Lab. The
final picture of the completed mechanical structure is shown below.

The final mechanical structure

We present to you our endeavor in designing and
implementing an autonomous machine capable of
solving a Rubik’s cube given in any possible state.
Our idea was to design a mechanical setup on
which six stepper motors (electromechanical deProgramming
vices that convert electrical pulses into discrete
Programming part was like the backbone of the
mechanical movements) can
project. It was basically dibe mounted, each of which
vided into two parts.
would be connected to the
Image Processing- We used
centre of the six faces of a Rua simple web camera to take
bik’s cube, thus allowing all
snapshots of the six faces of
the six faces to rotate indethe scrambled cube, procpendently. The mechanical
essed the images using Open
setup contains an unsolved
CV, and stored them in the
Rubik’s cube. We used a camRGB (Red, Green and Blue)
era to take the input of the
format. We then analyzed the
colors of a scrambled cube
content of Red, Green and
and then feed the information
Blue color in the pictures,
to a computer program that
thus determining the nine
analyzes it and generates the
Shaft alignment and attachment
colors on each face of the
sequence of steps required to
cube. So, the colors of all
solve the cube. The sequence is then sent to a micubies of the Cube get recorded and stored in an
crocontroller that drives the steppers accordingly
array.
with the help of motor driver ICs and hence, the
cube is solved.
Solving Algorithm - There are hundreds of algoDesign
The work done during the project can be categorized under three sectionsMechanical Design
Programming
Electronics
Mechanical Design
Mechanical part was undoubtedly the most demanding aspect of the bot. We needed precise 90°
rotations of the faces of the Cube, for which we
used high torque stepper motors. The biggest
mechanical problem we faced was in the alignment of the six shafts of the motors. Successful
operation of the robot required the opposite

Atmega 32 connection with motor driver
35

rithms available on the internet for solving a Rubik’s cube. The faster an algorithm is, the more
difficult it will be. As of now, we have been able to
implement a method used by blind solvers, the
Pochmann Algorithm, which takes about 200
steps to solve a cube. We take the array generated in the previous step as an input to this program and the program outputs another array
containing
a
sequence of
characters
R,L,F,B,T,D,1,2,3,4,5,6. This denotes the order in
which the motors have to be driven. R stands for
a 90° turn of the right motor clockwise and similarly for others. Numbers stand for anti clockwise
turns. This code runs on a laptop, and this array is
then transferred to the microcontroller, the brain
of the robot.

lower torque as compared to the bipolar motor.
Unipolar stepper motor can be used as a bipolar
motor by disconnecting the center tap. We used
unipolar motors for our project.
A stepper mode can be driven by three most common drive modes - Wave Drive (1 phase on), Full
Step Drive (2 phases on) and Half Step Drive (1 &
2 phases on). We implemented the half wave
drive in our motors in order to get exact 90°
rotation. It took around 13 loops of the half wave
drive in attaining one fourth i.e. 90° rotation.
Future Scope
A lot needs to be worked upon still! Currently, our
robot is not as efficient as we would have wanted.
The mechanical flaws can be worked upon thus
lowering the probability of lock-ups while turning
the cube. The Pochmann Algorithm takes too
many steps to solve the cube. Using better algorithms especially designed for cube solving by
computers like Thistlewait’s Algo(52 steps max)
or Kociemba’s Algo(22 steps max) will reduce the
number of steps thus making the robot work fast.
Stepper motors can also be controlled more easily
and efficiently by changing the motor driver. Last
but not the least, a better quality Rubik’s cube,
probably a Lingyun Dayan, maybe installed in the
bot. These cubes have better edge cutting properties and rotate very smoothly.

Electronics
Controlling
the
stepper
motors,
the
microcontroller and the communication between
computer and microcontroller were the three
major tasks of the electronics aspect. We used the
microcontroller ATmega32 as it was sufficient to
drive six stepper motors simultaneously. It was
programmed
through
STK500
Serial
programmer.
We used the stepper motor because they can be
accurately controlled in an open loop system, i.e.
no feedback information about the current position is needed. The speed of the motor shafts rotation is directly related to the frequency of the
input pulses and the length of rotation is directly
related to the number of input pulses applied.

There are three types of stepper motors based on
construction – Variable Reluctance motor, Permanent Magnet motor and Hybrid motor. We used
the Permanent Magnet motor, whose rotor has no
teeth but is magnetized with alternating north
and south poles situated in a straight line parallel
to the rotor shaft. These magnetized rotor poles
provide an increased magnetic flux intensity
thereby higher torque.

Acknowledgements
We feel privileged to be given a chance by the Robotics
Club, IIT Kanpur to take up this interesting summer project. Working during the summers not only enhanced our
technical skills but also taught us the importance of team
effort. We thank the Co-ordinators of the Club for their
constant guidance, and special thanks for Subhash Sir at
the 4i-Lab, who patiently worked with us on the WaterJet machine for hours to get our parts fabricated.
Anuj Agrawal (anuj@iitk.ac.in) is a second year undergraduate student in the department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kanpur. His interests lie in the area of
Robotics and Automobiles. In his leisure time he mostly
likes to watch thoughtful movies and loves Photography.

Based on the design and working, stepper motors
can be bipolar or unipolar. The bipolar motor
needs current to be driven in both directions
through the windings, and a full bridge driver.
But the unipolar has a center tap on each winding
that allows a simpler driving circuit limiting the
current flow to one direction. The main drawback
with the unipolar motor is its limited capability to
energize all windings at any time, resulting in a

Deepak Pathak (deepakp@iitk.ac.in) is a second year
undergraduate student in the Department of Computer
Science and Engineering at IIT Kanpur. His areas of interests include Robotics , Programming and Algorithms.
He is also fond of listening music.

V4n1

The lecture series on ancient Indian science and civilization by eminent historian Michel Danino, that had jam-packed L16 with the enthralled audience and the discussion that followed regarding a ‘History of Science’ course being offered in our curriculum, was undoubtedly the best choice for the cover story; along with an exclusive detailed interview with him.